Running towards Tomorrow
by janckw
Summary: This story takes place in the U-17 camp, with the New Prince of Tennis storyline! Ryoma, along with the other middle schoolers, fights to climb to the top. However, new people, new settings, and new challenges bring out the lost memories deep within Ryoma that he never had to face until now.
1. U17

**I'm deciding to add an AN right here, after two months or so (I think I just uploaded chapter 10 by now) XP This is my first fanfic, and it's set in Shintenipuri, cuz...I don't know, not many people have done a Shintenipuri fanfic. **

**The basic summary is that events happen that makes Ryoma remember things he's forgotten. Very simple XD (but memories are vague plots XP)**

**This story will move a little slowly (in plot), and so I hope you can be patient with my snail progress and enjoy the fanfic ^^ Another thing, although this chapter's short...they get...longer. There are times when I believe the chapter's way too long, but some conversations in there are meant to be there for events that take place later on in the story.**

**One more thing, reviews. I appreciate reviews, positive ones and CC ones, but just nothing like "you suck" plz :) So please do review!**

**Thanks! I really hope you enjoy :D**

"_It's really nice here, isn't it...You know, I've always wanted to live through a day like this…with friends…"_

"_Hey Ryoma, let's meet up here again when that day comes! Everyone else will come too! If you want, of course…"_

"_Yeah…you'll be there, right?"_

"_Yep! It's a promise! I'll be there for sure…"_

"_You really promise?"_

"_Promise is a promise! After all, I'm-"_

Chapter one: U-17

"_You want to become stronger, right?"_

Even now, Coach Saito's words echoed through Ryoma's head. He leaned against the worn out walls of the shed in which Coach Nyudo kept his supplies, breathing heavily. The middle schoolers had just gone through another one of Coach Nyudo's "training", aka, incredibly grueling punishments from hell. The only reason why Ryoma was so determined to get through the harsh training was because of those words; he wanted to become stronger.

After losing to Tokugawa Kazuya, Coach Saito had taken him and that jumpy red head Kintaro (who had lost to Oni) to the foot of the mountains, where they had met up with the other 25 middle schoolers who had lost in the elimination matches to their comrades. From there, they had fallen off a bridge (which -to Kei's extreme annoyance - was all Kei's fault.), climbed cliffs without harnesses (and that wasn't dangerous at all), climbed even more cliffs, got tennis balls thrown onto them, and got their jerseys peed on and buried.

But for some reason, somehow, the middle schoolers had bonded from the experience. Sanada was pretty persistent in this whole mountain training too- he had had close ups on his face with him shouting some kind of encouragement (more easily described as orders) as least 5 times now - but everyone was as determined as he was to crawl on up to the top.

"All right!" the coach bellowed "Take a 30 minute break, then do 25000 swings!"

_Che… _Ryoma sighed. _Never lets up, that coach._ He gave them tasks to do that most normal humans most likely wouldn't able to achieve.

The said drunk coach trudged up to Ryoma, hacking and spitting into a bush on the way. _Speak of the devil..._ Ryoma thought, making a face.

"Oi, brat. Go into the second shed and grab three boxes of lead rackets, along with three Hellcatchers. You'd better hurry it up!" he snarled, before trudging back into his cabin.

_What the…Hellcatchers? Geez, someone's had too much alcohol. _Ryoma thought wearily. _That guy's naming sense is as bad as Toyama's._ He then proceeded down to the second shed, which was down near the waterfalls. The shed was rarely used by the middle schoolers, as it was reserved for the cooking supplies, which the high schoolers usually handled, as Coach Nyudo most likely didn't trust the cooking sense of the middle schoolers (or more specifically, of Inui). The quality of it was even worse than the first shed, probably because of the fact that it was right next to a raging waterfall. Ryoma was about to grab the wet handle, when,

_-BAM!_

"ITAI!"

_-CRASH!_

"Ah, sumimasen, sumimasen!" A shocked voice shook Ryoma out of his dazed state. Well, to resume what had happened in one sentence, a high schooler who had been in the shed had slammed the door right into Ryoma's face upon exiting. "Are you all right?" He was surprisingly polite to Ryoma.

"…"

Ryoma wondered if the guy had hit him on purpose. After all, those guys weren't exactly famous for being nice. In fact, they would probably throw the middle schoolers over a cliff, if they were allowed to.

But then again, the blond looked genuinely sorry, and he (unlike most of the other high schoolers) had a nice look in his eyes. He didn't really look Japanese. He was about the same height as Kanata, with brown eyes, glasses, and blond, shoulder length wavy hair. He was probably an American who immigrated to Japan or something. Ryoma wondered if he knew Liliadent Krauser or Kevin Smith.

"Sure, it's ok" Ryoma replied, standing up and brushing off his once-white shorts. "Don't the high schoolers have practice right now? Something about lifting 40Lb sand bags up a hill?"

The high schooler laughed. "Yeah, but I skipped!" He stuck out his tongue playfully, and grinned.

"Hm." Ryoma sidestepped the guy easily, entering the dark shed. "Ja."

The high schooler merely cocked his head and followed him in. "I didn't actually skip, you know. I don't want to die early! I'm just here to grab some free weights." He pointed to a set of weights in a corner filled with cobwebs.

Ryoma, busy looking for the rackets, simply ignored the high schooler. He was beginning to think that the guy was a bit too chatty for his liking. But then again, he couldn't help but ask,

"You good at tennis?" Ryoma smirked, his golden eyes gleaming beneath his white cap and emerald tinted black hair. He always loved a challenge and he hadn't seen this particular high schooler ever play. That could mean fun.

The teen looked amused now, and quite interested too. "Maybe. Wanna find out? Then again, we both have practice, so maybe later. But I definitely wanna see your skills, so this ain't the last time you'll be seeing me! I'm Kabuto, by the way, and from my bank of data, you're the one and only Echizen Ryoma. Yoroshiku!"

"Hmm, domo." With that, Ryoma started back to where Coach Nyudo (and hell) was waiting, with the seriously heavy rackets. He would definitely have to make two, if not three, trips. It was only when he was about to take the second load up the 7 minute path that he realized something.

_Wait, I can't take the other two boxes in the time I have, not even if I run. Damn it, too bad that Kabotu guy isn't here._

He briefly considered dragging them both bit by bit, and was about to execute the plan, when a pair of bandaged wrists reached past him and swiftly (well, not swiftly but as swift as can be with a heavy box) picked up a box.

"Momo-senpai?"

"Yo, Echizen! I knew you wouldn't be able to carry all of these in the time limit, so I'm here to help you! After all, I've gotta show my Kohai here what a Senpai's supposed to do!" Momo winked cheekily.

Ryoma hesitated, a flicker of worry in his eyes. "But what about your wrists? They just started healing…and wouldn't Oishi-senpai start worrying about you, and all that stuff?"

Momo chuckled, waving away the worry. "Oi, oi, I'm tougher than I look, Echizen! If I just sat around, it would take longer to heal! (_Yeah right_. Ryoma thought) C'mon, we'll be late if we don't start moving! By the way, are those cobwebs in that shed? Ugh, and there are cooking supplies and utensils in there…" Momo groaned as his face turned a slight green.

The best friends broke into a light run, enjoying the gentle breeze in the warm sun, as they carried the who-knows-how-heavy boxes up the path. A minute in though, Momo decided to ask a question that had been on his – and a lot of people's – mind.

"Ne….Echizen… uh…you know, where were you during the elimination matches?" He paused, then continued. "I'm pretty sure you didn't get lost. You're not the type who gets lost. You're more the type that likes to wander around and explore."

Ryoma sighed. "I challenged some guy on Ichiban court to a match." He knew Momo could tell what the result had been. It was the reason why he was there in the mountains with him.

Momo stared at Ryoma for a long moment. "Geez Echizen, you're- after what happened to me in my match against Oni-senpai, you didn't even consider the fact that the guys in the higher courts would be even stronger?"

Ryoma shrugged. "Just wanted a challenge."

After a few more minutes of jogging, they reached the first shed where the middle scholars were waiting, the majority of them lying down on the ground panting. Momo grinned, celebrating the fact that they had 'made it on time'.

"So Echizen, got everything right?" he asked cheerfully.

"Well," Ryoma started, before his eyes widened, realizing something. "Oh yeah..."

"Yeah? Great!" Misunderstanding Ryoma's "yeah", Momo trotted off to get a drink.

_Oh yeah, what about those hell-whatever it was?_

Unfortunately for Ryoma, the 30 minute break was up, and he had failed to bring up all the things needed from the second shed. He cursed under his breath, annoyed. It was probably because he got distracted by that Kabotu guy. Now he was going to get yelled at, punched, or thrown over a cliff. He really hoped it wasn't the latter. There were rumors that Coach Nyudo had once tossed a guy over a cliff like a piece of trash, and no one wanted to see if it was true.

"Koshimae.."

Kintaro, who like most of the others, was sprawled onto the grass, stared at Ryoma from his upside down position.

"Koshimae, did you get hurt? You have a huge bump on your forehead, and it's starting to swell!"

Shinji sat up, mumbling. "He's probably using the bump on his head to get sympathy…how annoying…if I did that, would anyone even feel sympathatic for me? Probably not, that's even more anno-"

The Prince of Data stepped in. "Chances that Echizen got hurt by walking into something or getting hit by something, but is too embarrassed to tell us – 120%"

"119.342%" countered the Prince of Data II, Renji.

"Y-you…underestimate me…"

Then of course, the mother hen of Seigaku started up. "Echizen, that looks really bad! What happened? You need to put some water on that, no, ice, or maybe-"

Ryoma walked away, annoyed "I tripped."

He then felt a presence behind him, and judging by the looks of wary and slight irritation on the middle schoolers faces, it was probably Coach Nyudo. He waited for the "What the hell are you trash doing? _HURRY UP AND PRACTICE!"_ and blah blah blah.

It didn't come.

_Hm?_ Ryoma finally turned around, and came face to face with Kabotu-whatever-his-name-was. Kabuto smiled and pressed something into Ryoma's hand. It was a-

"WAGH!" Of course, the startled first-year wasn't prepared for the red glove (which he later learned was one of the three Hellcatchers that Kabuto had brought for him) that was in his hands to weigh about 3 times more than a lead racket. Surprised, he fell to his knees, dropping the crazy weight on Kabuto's foot in the process. This, of course, led to pandemonium.

"AAAGGHHH! MY FOOT, MY FOOT! HEEYYY, THAT-" He then fell over backwards, and stepped on-

"WHOA! WATCH IT, HIGH SCHOOLER!" Zaizen snapped, wincing as he hopped around on his non-bruised foot. One of his flailing elbows then whacked-

"AIIIEEE!" Kintaro wailed, falling over backwards into-

"OW!" Not wanting to get involved any further, Gakuto massaged his bruised head before Moonsaulting out of the way. Or so he thought. He ended up landing on-

"FFSSSHHHHH! YOU BASTARD, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT-" who then tripped over the boxes of rackets and rammed into-

"WAAH! WATCH IT, BAKA MAMUSHI!"

"WHAT WAS THAT, MOMOSHIRI?"

"IT'S CUZ YOU'RE SO CLUMSY AND STUPID THAT-", he was then tripped by-

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Richard Sakata stepped back in satisfaction, but then Momo tripped him in return, who then sent flying a bucket of something yellow and in liquid form onto-

A very unsuspecting Coach Nyudo.

The rest need not be described, but the middle scholars + Kabuto had nightmares for 4 days straight afterwards.

_After the fiasco: "Sigh..._Mada mada dane."


	2. High Schoolers VS Middle Schoolers

**Hi! How was chapter 1? Good? Bad? Trash that your dog could do better? Ha ha, I'm hoping to improve my story's quality and...story as I go on. This fanfiction involves both new characters and old. **

**This is a Ryoma fanfic (yeah, so don't read if you can't stand him), but I have a lot of other characters from pot in there too, like Akaya in chapter three, and Koharu in chapter five. Eventually though, the story will revolve almost completely around Ryoma...and some people. **

**I think I explained the summary in chapter 1, but I'll say it again. First, the plot's gonna stick closely to the general npot plot. Then after mountain training, it's just connected loosely to the plot, because I'm going to add another plot/summary/whatever you call it. The 1st string's still there though. Byoudouin's cool! ^^**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own p.o.t.**

**Btw, does anyone want yaoi? Just tell me if you do, if there are enough people who want yaoi, I'll do it. But for now, it's not really in the plan.**

**If there's a character you wanna see, just tell me, and I'll be happy to try and get them in. Just don't ask for anyone that's not in the camp, I mean seriously, I have no idea how I would get Sakuno in there.**

Chapter 2: The rise of the middle schoolers

_4 days after the Hellcatcher incident._

"OW OW OW OW OWWW!"

"Calm down, Sakata-kun! Just relax for a little bit-"

"HOW CAN I RELAX? My back- OWW! MY LEGS! MY BUTT!" whimpered Sakata, rolling around on the floor in agony. He wasn't the only one who was suffering after the "training" Coach Nyudo had given them after Momo and Sakata had tripped and sent a bucket of pee – yes, _pee_- onto Coach Nyudo's head, even getting some into his precious gourd. Even Tezuka would have an extreme expression of pain on his face after such training. Let's just say that the numbers had exceeded 30000 on some occasions, and had even gone up to 50000 for Momo and Sakata. They looked...lifeless by now.

The middle schoolers were gathered in a somewhat spacious cabin, resting there for a bit before dinner. It wasn't a bad cabin at all, with an empty living room, three small bathrooms (that were sometimes – _sometimes _– clean), and 20 bunk beds. It was way more comfortable for them than it was for the high schoolers, probably because there were double the number of high schoolers than middle schoolers. Some of the middle schoolers, like Ryo and Kadowaki, were busy trying to stretch and ease their strained limbs as much as possible. Others, like Kintaro and Kenya, were lightly jogging around the open space of the living room (the major advantage of having almost no furniture). Some just sat around chatting casually. The rest of the people, like Ryoma, sat against the wall or on a bed watching the newest episode of Momo VS Kaido – The Intense Showdown.

Oishi groaned, feeling stressed out and worried. _Everyone's pulled at least 2 muscles, if not 50, and they could be malnourished and dehydrated, and what if they were to pass out from exhaustion, especially Echizen and Kintaro-kun, they're only first-years, and -_ A sudden bang from the wooden doors to their cabin made him lose his excessively long train of thoughts. A very flustered and unhappy looking Gakuto burst into the bustling room, bringing with him the news that no one wanted to hear.

"Oi, that bastard Coach wants us to come out! Apparently all of us need to play a match against the high schoolers, and they have way more people than us! And if they win, they get to sleep in the cabin and we get to sleep in a _CAVE!"_

Silence.

"_NANI?" _

* * *

Ryoma scratched his head, sighing. He was outside on the court, with the other upset middle schoolers, waiting for Coach Nyudo to come out and give them instructions. The high schoolers were already there, looking proud and smug as usual. He rolled his eyes as he remembered the commotion that had followed the announcement.

_Flashback:_

"_NANI?"_

_Kintaro's eyes widened in horror. "But, but, but, but, that's not fair!" he yelled, waving his arms in the air and panicking. There was only one cabin, and it could only host the middle schoolers or the high schoolers; not both. So in the beginning, to regulate the situation, they had simply taken turns sleeping in the cabin, while the other group slept outside on the grass in tents. "It's our turn to sleep in the cabin today; we should just play the match tomorrow!"_

_Momo nodded in agreement, suddenly brought back to life. "That crazy coach can't do that! He just can't!"_

_Inui took a quick peek in his green notebook (which by now had suffered some irreparable damage from insufficient maintenance on Inui's part.). "Chances that the coach is still mad at us…85%" he muttered, trying to rearrange the numbers to make the percentage smaller. Everyone had learned by now that making Coach Nyudo mad would result in a forever forfeit over the control of their life._

_Ryo shuddered, the thought of sleeping in caves making him nervous. "We'd better win!" he said sharply, summoning his confidence._

"_Yeah" Sanada started, "but those guys have more people than we do, almost double the number. Also, we're more exhausted then they are, and I'm sure there's something else, but I can't quite put my finger on it yet. I don't think the coach is giving us any chances to win...Be prepared." he murmured, looking away from the group as the reality sank in._

_Ryoma blinked, not having listened to anything but the last part. "I don't want to lose to them." he said pointedly. "Even if we're outnumbered, I'm sure we can still pull through and win._ _We haven't even played yet. It's too early to give up._"

_Everyone turned towards the first year, realization and confidence lighting up in their eyes. "YEAH!" they yelled, fist-pumping the air._

_"Huh?"_

_And so,_ Ryoma thought, _that's how we ended up outside on this court, playing a clearly unfair match._ It was pretty unfair for the middle schoolers, because, 1) There were way more high schoolers than middle schoolers. 2) It was always the high schoolers who would serve. 3) The coach was probably still mad at them, so who knew what would happen, and 4) The high schoolers hadn't been the ones who had suffered the physical aspects from Coach Nyudo's "training". He sighed again, shuffling his feet impatiently. They were still waiting for a few people to come, and then they would start the match. The cold fall wind brushed past him, blowing off his hat in one go. He spun around quickly, trying to catch it, and ended up crashing into one of the high schoolers – which just so happened to be Sasabe. _Here we go again…_he thought in slight disgust.

The smug high schooler held up Ryoma's hat above his head tauntingly, spining it around on his finger. "Might this plain little white cap be yours? By any chance, did you…want it back?" He smirked, a look of satisfaction on his face. He obviously thought he had the middle schooler cornered.

Ryoma looked at him, sighing. "Yeah. Any chance of you just giving it to me?"

Sasabe glared at him. "Maybe if you apologized and got on your knees for bumping into me. And pleading for this crappy piece of fabric would be a nice touch, don't you think?"

Ryoma turned away. "Whatever. Then you can just keep that 'crappy piece of fabric'." He didn't really care. After all, he had quite a few of the same ones in his bag, along with an impressive assortment of other styles of caps. It had become a little hobby of his, hat collecting.

"Kuh..." Sasabe growled angrily, furious at having been ignored. _Let's see if he still ignores me after I punch his pretty little face in!_ He raised his arm, and thrust it at full force towards Ryoma.

"Is that really a good thing to do when we're around?"

Momo, Kaido and the other middles schoolers gathered around Sasabe, a dark look in their eyes. Sasabe paled, his face turning white in the sunset rays. "Y-you…jerks…" He threw the cap onto the ground, then turned around and pushed his way back to where the high schoolers were. "We're definitely going to win this. Then you and your pathetic group of idiots can have a nice, fun sleepover in the cave!" he yelled, detemined to get the last word.

"What a bastard." Wakashi muttered, glaring daggers into the retreating high schooler's back. He absolutely loathed the fact that the high schoolers always thought they were 1000 times better than the middle schoolers – which they weren't. _Even after we beat every single one of them, they still believe that crap! _He thought, seething. _I'm showing them...I'm showing them who's boss here!_

Momo was about to say something when the coach came lumbering out from his own personal cabin, his signature gourd – wait, no, it looked like a new one – in hand. He rubbed his bloodshot eyes and cleared his throat.

"All right…" he started, coughing a bit, "If everyone's here, then let's get started! Middle schoolers, gather onto this court, high schoolers, gather onto the opposite court. Move it!"

Once gathered, Sanada stepped forward, voicing the reason of the match. "So basically speaking, we'll play against the high schoolers, and the winner will get to sleep in the cabin tonight."

Coach Nyudo nodded, and added to the statement. "That's exactly right. It's the Middle Schoolers VS High Schoolers Battle for Beds!". Ryoma sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. _That coach's horrible naming sense strikes again…_

He continued. "I'm sure the rules were already told to you by a member of your group, but I'll explain the rules again. The rules are simple. Those who miss, step outside the court. The last one inside is the winner. The high schoolers will serve each time."

"Hold on! This isn't fair!" Momo protested frantically. Kaido joined in, equally agitated. "We've got way less people than them!" For once, the two had the same thing in mind, and it wasn't fighting.

"Then let's get started!"

Zaizen rolled his eyes. "He's not listening." he whispered, kicking at the sand.

Taka smiled meekly "I don't think complaining will do any good." he said good-naturedly. Taka had always been a good sport, no matter what the situation. Momo took in the nervous, unconfident, gentle third-year, and smirked, handing him his yellow racket. "Here, Taka-san!" he probbed casually.

"**BURNING! **Even if we've got less people, it's **NO PROBLEM!** HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!" He roared, with a mixture of fiery fury and broken English. There were practically burning flames exploding behind him. Momo snickered, barely holding in his laughter. _Heeey, Taka-san's really on __fire today! _

From the high schoolers court, Kabuto watched the scene in awe. _Holy crap, that guy's actually on fire…_ he thought, his mouth hanging open in shock. He twirled his red racket around, still bewildered, and looked at the rest of his fellow teammates. _The middle schoolers are a weird bunch,_ he thought_, there's an acrobatic, an imitator, a guy on fire, a snake…so weird. _

"That's the spirit. Let's get started!" The coach yelled, before taking his spot on a nearby tree stump. Sasabe got in position to hit the first serve, flexing his muscles in anticipation. "Let's see you brats try to return this!" he bellowed, before sending the ball flying to the other court.

Kaido jumped swiftly in front of the others, getting ready to return the ball into the high schooler's face with a vicious Boomerang Snake. "I've got this!" he shouted.

-BAM!

Stunned, Kaido gasped as the ball rebounded with a weird, unnatural angle. "I-irregular bounce?" he stammered. Coach Nyudo took another swing from his gourd. "You there, OUT!"

"OUT!"

"OUT!"

"OUT!"

"_OUT!"_  
Before long, over half of the middle schoolers had been wiped out, all because the high schoolers had more experience with the rocky, unfamiliar court than them. By now, almost all of the high schoolers couldn't control themselves, and were laughing, taunting the middle schoolers and playing dirty. Ryoma's eyes widened as he saw Sasabe trap Kenya into falling, before smashing the ball far out of the Speed Star's reach. He clenched his hands tightly into fists, frowning. For some unknown reason, Ryoma was finding that he was a little more sensitive to dirty play then others. He shook himself out of it, and approached the "net" confidently (being a single piece of rope).

He raised his racket into position. "We just have to make sure that the ball doesn't hit the ground!" he announced, a spark in his eyes.

Kintaro bounded joyfully alongside him, swinging his treasured racket. "YEAH! All we need to do is hit volleys!Let's do thi-"

-BAM! The ball dropped between Ryoma's and Kintaro's racket frames with a silent thump. They blinked in surprise, taking in their rackets, which were blocking each other after they had tried to go after the same ball. "Eh?"

The coach turned towards them mercilessly. "You two, _OUT!"_ Ryo rubbed his forehead in slight disbelief. _I had heard that Echizen was bad at doubles, but I didn't think he was this bad. The Super Rookies of the East and West really do have terrible teamwork!_

Kabuto watched them from across the court. _Those guys are in trouble now_ he thought, whistling._ I didn't think that they could get accustomed to the court's irregularities in such a short amount of time, even if they are good._ He watched as three of the high schoolers teamed up against Sanada, effectively hitting him in the chest, before getting out a few more middle schoolers. Suddenly, out of the blue, a ball whizzed past his legs, and bounded off his court. _What?_

"_OUT!"_

Then, beside him, another ball streaked past a red-headed player, before whamming into the player behind him. _What's going on?_ He quickly stepped off the court, and tried to regain knowledge of what was happening. There were now only two middle schoolers left on the court – the people named Inui Sadaharu and Yanagi Renji.

Yanagi looked at Inui triumphantly. "Have you imputed the terrain and angles of reflection, Sadaharu?"

Inui smiled back at his old partner, nodding. "Yes Renji. I have all the data."

From there on out, it was complete annihilation. Kabuto winced as a pair of high schoolers – twins – slammed into each other at high speeds_. How can this be happening?_ he wondered, completely in awe. _They were losing one minute ago!_

Inui smiled at them, a slightly menacing smile, like the one he wore when he was making Inui Juice. "Chances of us missing due to an irregular bounce: 0%"

Yanagi stepped in, with a confident "My data is perfect".

Kabuto's eyes were huge and bulging by now. _What the hell! Are these guys androids?_

"Angle of incidence, 47 degrees. Angle of reflection, 61 degrees. The spatial vector and moment of inertia are…"

"Air pressure, ground compositon, humidity, the impact timing is…"

Kabuto slumped weakly, head in his lap. He sweat dropped._ Yeah, those guys are androids. _He then looked up, noticing the same pair of spiky blue-haired twins that had slammed into each other walking towards him. Or rather, they were trying to walk towards him. It obviously wasn't going to well, judging by their wild circles. They spun around for a few seconds before collapsing into a dizzy heap onto the ground. Kabuto decided to ignore them and concentrate on the match. By now, there were only three high schoolers left. They obviously didn't look so smug and confident now – in fact, they looked like they were exhausted, and ready to collapse. Their initial advantage had made them too cocky, and it had built up on them.

Satisfied, Yanagi turned to Inui. "Well then, shall we finish this?"

But before Inui could reply, there was a sharp, "All right, STOP!" from Coach Nyudo. "With three high schoolers to two middle schoolers, the high schoolers win!" It took a long moment for that to sink in but soon enough, the high schoolers were jumping up and down, celebrating their victory. Despite the middle schooler's protests, the coach had declared the high schoolers winners, and so they were the winners. Coach Nyudo was the king of the mountain here. It was then time for dinner, so the players dispersed, some of them being happy, while others…not so much.

"God…" Ryoma muttered, walking over to the cave unhappily. _Maybe I should try improving my doubles skills,_ he thought ruefully. He took a quick peek into a book he had brought with him to the camp – Doubles for beginners. _What a beginner I am…_He rejoined with the group who were all standing in front of their new home…the deep, dark, cold, cave… Who knew what was in there? Who knew what_ lived_ in there. They stared into the cave, listening to the wind echoing inside it...which brought an awkward silence.

Ryoma was the first to enter the cave. He didn't really care about it, after all, it wasn't like he was afraid- _Wait_, Ryoma thought, _that brings up a good point_. He turned around and his very suspicions were confirmed in an instant. Behind him was a shaking, pale, petrified, shivering Kaido Kaoru.

Ryoma stared at him in slight disbelief, shaking his head. "Kaido-senpai…you're not…_scared,_ are you? It's just a cave, it's not like there's anything in there that'll kill you."

Momo's eyes widened and he jumped in mock surprise. "Oh my goodness, the all-mighty, ferocious Mamushi, afraid of a little cave? Or of the possibility of _ghosts?"_

Kai snickered loudly from behind Kaido, "Wow, who would have known, who would have known? I'm totally seeing you in a whole new way now!" he said, patting Kaido on the back.

Kaido paled even further – he face looked as if someone had dumped white paint on it. "N-n-n-n-n-n-o…I-I…j-just…." He was sweating now, unable to find anything to say that would avert the suspicions. His reputation was going steadily out the window.

Niou grinned slyly, knowing exactly what the first thing he would tell the others when he saw them would be. "Puri."

Glasses glinting, Inui quickly scrawled in his notebook, fascinated by the new-found data. "So Kaido is afraid of ghosts….Ii data…"

Finally finding his voice, Kaido roared, "_THAT'S NOT TRUE AT ALL! FSSSHHHH! YOU'RE ALL WRONG!"_

Momo smirked mischievously, unable to resist the urge to tease the scared snake some more. "So then, Mamushi, go into the cave and explore, why don't you? You don't think there are…_ghosts_, in there, right? So go ahead, have fun! You can tell us how it was, and if it's safe in there! You wouldn't wanna force a first year like Echizen into a _scary_ cave, right? That's just what an amazing senpai like you should do, take the risk for him!"

Kaido instantly seized up in fear, trembling. "U-u-uh…-"

_-SSKKKRREEEEEEECCCHHH! _

"WAAAAAAAAHHH!"

And that was the last thing anyone heard of Kaido Kaoru before he ran off screaming into the sunset. After a moment of silence, the middle schoolers burst out into uncontrollable laughter. The source of the sound had been the imitator Yuuji, who had imitated an owl screech. Everyone had to admit, he was pretty damn good at it. They smiled at each other, happy at ending the day off on a bright note (well, it was a bright note for everyone except for Kaido), and settled down into the sleeping bags provided by Coach Nyudo before saying their good-nights and going to sleep.

Momo snuggled deep into his warm sleeping bag, sighing contentedly. "Na, Echizen….we're definitely gonna crawl out of this hell, you know?"

"Of course, Momo-senpai. Everyone's waiting for us."

"…Yeah, you're right. Oyasumi, Echizen."

"Oyasumi, Momo-senpai."

**Geez, poor Kaido XD. I hope he lives through this camp. That's it for chapter 2, please read and enjoy the next chapter, "The (not so) Secret Mission" Thanks for reading!**


	3. The Not so Secret Mission

**Hi, I'm back! I said I wouldn't be updating for a while to improve the quality of my stories. I apologize for the horribleness (a word?) of the previous chapters, especially chapter 2 XP. I hope it was satisfactory. Anyways, here's chapter 3, the Secret Mission! I wasn't actually going to do this chapter, but I changed my mind and decided to do it. I'm not showing a lot of it though, that's what the anime's for XD. I'm just putting in thoughts from the characters, mainly (for some reason) Kenya…uh, (remembers that it's a Ryoma fanfic) and Ryoma. I'm also adding in some filler parts, because I didn't want to make it exactly like the anime (again, that's why the anime's there XD)**

**On that note, this is a Shin Tenipuri fanfic, so it's probably better to read the series first. It's based more on the anime episodes though. (You're crazy if you don't want to watch the secret mission XD it was way funnier than in the manga. Pot needs more eps like that)**

**Oh, btw, it's called the (not so) secret mission because there are about 10 people who know about it.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own prince of tennis**

**This is going to be in two parts, I think. It's just too long to squish into one part XP the ending of the secret mission's going to be long, thanks to Akaya. He's mentioned a lot in this chapter (Any Akaya fans? XD) **

**Enjoy! Rate and review! **

Chapter 3: The (not so) Secret Mission

_Plip, plip, plip, plip._

_Arrggh…_ Kenya groaned in his sleep, rolling on to his sore back. He opened his eyes and looked up at the black ceiling, shivering. _It's a dream, it's a dream, it's gotta be a dream…_he willed himself to think. A single drop of freezing water landed down onto his bare forehead. _NGGGGHH!_ He winced. _No, it's not a dream! Stupid stupid stupid coach! Isn't this human cruelty? We should sue him or something!_

The middle schoolers were sleeping (or at least, were trying to sleep) in the cave for the first night. It wasn't as cold as they thought it would be, but it was definitely torture. There were freezing water droplets that were constantly dripping onto the middle schooler's heads, like a form of Chinese Water Torture, which didn't exactly serve as a soothing lullaby. They had to constantly find new positions to sleep in, but even so, the water droplets were still finding their way to their favorite landing pods. Kenya moaned, and turned onto his stomach to try and relief his never-ending pain. Unfortunately for him, the ground of the cave was as jagged as a rock, and about as sharp, so it felt like he was on top of a mountain of splintered wood. The coach was an obvious cheapo, so the sleeping bags were worn out and thin. Kenya froze for a moment. _Wait a minute…have these been used before? Is that why they smell…oh god, have these been washed? Like, ever?_ He turned a mossy shade of green before trying to blank out his mind like his longtime rival/friend of the east, Yuushi, and go to sleep. Right when he was about to fall asleep, though…

_-BAM BAM BAM! CRAAAASHH!_

Coach Nyudo was standing at the lip of the cave, banging onto a loud cymbal with a mallet. "You pieces of trash, get your lazy asses up and out of here! It's time for training! Did you really think you could beat the winners without training at night? HURRY UP! 30000 SWINGS!" The middle schoolers replied with an enthusiastic groan, with cheerful complaints to top it off. They wriggled stiffly out of their sleeping bags one by one, trying to figure out how early in the morning it was.

Ryoma shook himself wearily out of his sleeping bag, rubbing his eyes. _Ah...I can't believe we're training this early in the morning. What time is it, 3AM?_ He sighed, and slowly rolled up his sleeping bag. He stepped back afterwards, and ended up nearly tripping over a large lump on the ground. He couldn't tell who or what the mass of gray lumpiness was. Kenya appeared from behind him, running a hand through his damp hair.

"What's that, Echizen? A pile of sleeping bags?" he grumbled sleepily. He kicked the lump in curiosity, not knowing that it was really-

"WHAT THE HECK! Ow, my stomach! Who the hell was that!" a very annoyed Tanishi.

Kenya jumped back in shock, "Oh, gomen! I didn't know it was you, Tanishi, I thought it was just some kind of ginormous sleeping bag monster."

Over the protests of a red faced Tanishi, Ryoma reminded them that they would probably get thrown over a cliff if they didn't hurry up. They rushed out the cave, and being the last three people out, they could already sense that trouble was to come.

"Oi, you three, wait up."

They all turned around and came face to face with a dark eyed Coach Nyudo.

Ryoma simply yawned. _What could that Coach want this time?_

Kenya held back a sigh. _Right when I thought life couldn't get any worse…I think my body's never going to forgive me for this…mom, dad, I love you…_

Tanishi's stomach growled. _Whatever it is, let's hope it involves sausage!_

The coach smirked at them, and held up his gourd and a flaming torch. "I have a secret mission for you three."

* * *

-"Your mission is to steal from the U-17 shed, 100 balls, 50 bars of soap, and 15 bottles of both shampoo and conditioner. If you're wondering how you're going to get there, figure it out yourself. I'm not helping you. The other mission is the special mission, which is to fill up my gourd with the finest sake in the bar lounge. And now you're probably wondering why I chose you three. I chose you because you happened to be there. In other words, it really doesn't matter if you work together well or not. Put the special mission at first priority, the other stuff's just trash to me. By the way, whether you get in trouble or not is none of my concern. That's all. Good luck."

"That's it? No tips or anything?" Kenya grabbed the letter from Ryoma's hands, frustrated. He flipped it over a few times, then held it under the light of the torch to see if there was some sort of invisible message. "Nothing! What a bastard!"

Ryoma sighed, taking back the letter. All the coach had told them back there was to go into the cave until they found something. After a good solid 15 minute walk in the cave, the trio had found a note sitting peacefully on a rock. Upon reading it, they found that their mission was to (obviously) steal stuff from the shed of U-17. Kenya had looked strangely relieved at the mention of soap. The note also included a special mission – fill up his gourd with saké.

Tanishi stamped his foot unhappily. "So that coach thinks that all he needs to do is say 'Good Luck' and we'll go fetch him his stuff like a bunch of dogs?"

"Che!" Kenya retorted angrily "Well duh, what do you think we're doing right now?"

_This is going to be a long night…_ Ryoma thought to himself, watching the bickering pair. "I thought that coach had a shed full of saké. This is stupid, how will one gourd last him more than 10 minutes? He'll have someone else sneaking around to get him another in an instant!"

All of them paused in deep thought for a few minutes "Well-"

-CCRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Tanishi leaped back in fear, the hair on his neck shooting up "W-what is that?" Ryoma stared into the cave, wide-eyed "It couldn't be-"

"BATS! BATS! RUN! _THEY'LL SUCK YOUR BLOOD!"_ Kenya shot out in the opposite direction of the bats in record time, followed by a nerve-wracked, sweating, Tanishi and a not-so-cocky-when-it-came-to-bats first year. The Speed Star of Naniwa then proceeded to displaying his amazing sense of balance by slipping off a ledge, followed by running on water like a normal person could so definitely do, and then falling in, all his efforts dying in vain. His loyal companions then jumped in to save him (well no, Tanishi fell in and dragged Ryoma in with him, but Kenya liked telling the other story more. It made him feel more loved.), and they all got eaten by a swirling whirlpool. How they didn't drown…well, the goddess of luck was on their side.

" KOFF KOFF KOFF!" Tanishi hacked violently, water still stuck in his throat. Somehow, all of them had made it out after having been washed out of the cave by the river. He sputtered, chest heaving. "T-this is w-w-why you don't swim in the m-middle of the night when it's raining! IT'S FREEZING!" Beside him, a shivering Kenya attempted to wring the water out of his drenched t-shirt "Did e-everyone make it out?"

Ryoma coughed. "Sure."

Kenya stood up and shook himself off, trying to warm himself up. "What great luck we have" he growled, cursing.

Ryoma's eyes widened and he looked back at Kenya. "Yeah, we really _do_ have great luck!"

Kenya and Tanishi both stared at Ryoma, goggle eyed. "Did that swim freeze your brain cells?" they asked, perfectly in sync. _What's so lucky about this?_

Ryoma pointed to a building in the distance. "If I'm not wrong, we ended up right where we want to be – U-17 camp."

* * *

_Meanwhile, back at the cabin on the mountains…_

"Ngghgyaa~!" Kabuto whined unhappily, lying back on the cool grass. Actually, by now it was wet, freezing grass, from the rain that wasn't exactly holding any of its unwanted offerings back. _Why the hell are we up training at this hour? Are the middle schoolers doing this too?_ As if to answer his question, the faint sound of counting reached his ears.

-"687! 688! 689! 690! 691! 692!"

Kabuto rubbed his eyes tiredly. _Those middle schoolers…they've got it easier_. The high schoolers had actually gotten up an hour earlier, at 2AM. It had been Sasabe's idea. Not that everyone had liked it. He smiled ruefully. _That Sasabe guy's gotten nicer ever since that near-loss to the middle schoolers. But seriously, he's gotten waay too serious about the training. I almost wish he had stayed the way he was before – at least we could have gotten more sleep._

A silent rustle in a bush made him look to his left. A red head – the one that had gotten out right after him in the match for the beds – approached him.

"Yo, Kabuto. What are you doing, taking a coffee break?" He grinned, his green eyes twinkling behind his shaggy copper bangs.

Kabuto punched the newcomer playfully "Don't be such a tease, Yugito. What do you want? Make it quick, we need to get back to training in five."

Yugito scratched his head thoughtfully as his sat down beside the blond. "I heard you talking to that rookie, that middle school kid. What was that all about?"

_Flashback:_

_After the match for the beds:_

_The middle schoolers walked away from the bonfire after having just finished their dinner to go back to the cabin and grab their bags. Unfortunately for them, their stay at their little 5 star hotel was going to be permanent, and cancellations weren't accepted under any circumstances. Ryoma trudged along the path to the cave with his bag, when a hushed whisper called out to him._

"_Pssst! Over here!" Being too sleepy to think straight, Ryoma just walked by the bush in which the source of the noise had come from. He received a stick thrown at his head in thanks._

_Ryoma sighed, turning around. "What do you want?"_

_Kabuto drew himself out of his hiding place cautiously. "Can you come with me? I want to talk to you in private."_

_Behind the high schooler's cabin in the cover of some trees, Kabuto began to speak. "So…the middle schoolers are in the cave, so that means something great and fun will happen!" he beamed happily, waiting for Ryoma's reaction._

_Ryoma blinked. "Ok, so are you bragging about the fact that you guys are sleeping in the cabin?"_

_Kabuto sweat dropped. "No, I'm not done yet." he continued, "I'm just telling you, there's going to be a secret mission for the people in the cave."_

_Ryoma looked even more confused. "A secret mission? How is it secret if you know about it?"_

_A tick appeared on the annoyed high schooler's head. _Grrr…stop interrupting everything I say! Why are you so sharp about every single detail?_ Instead, he replied in a nice tone. "Uh, this happens every year. It's really fun and challenging, more exciting than the training. I won't tell you too much, but Coach Nyudo's going to wake the middle schoolers up for training at 3AM in the morning every day (Ryoma groaned at this). One day, he's going to give the mission to the last three people who come out. Be one of those people, and you've got a fun time on your hands!" He winked, and started back to his cabin "Ja ne! Have fun!"_

Kabuto stared at Yugito in shock, gaping. "Y-you heard?" _I mustn't underestimate him!_

"Well," Yugito started, "you were so loud, it was impossible to not notice." Then he smiled gently. "Was that really the right thing to do? You're the reason why that rookie decided to lag behind in the cave. He's usually so eager for training, even if it's at 3AM, and yet he was one of the last three out."

"Hey, I thought he might enjoy Coach Saito and Coach Nyudo's annual "challenge". Apparently it's really fun! Tokugawa-san told me about it."

Yugito sighed, rolling his eyes. "You think everything's fun. Fun must be your favorite word – you can't even last a day without saying it. Get serious for once, or those middle schoolers will pull the rug out from under you."

Kabuto smirked. "Che. We're not that weak, Yugito, you know that. We're only here because we were late. You have the skills to be on Ichiban court, I'm sure. Let's go, the five minutes ended one minute ago!"

* * *

_At one of the many U-17 lounges:_

"_NOOOO!"_

Startled, Kirihara Akaya jumped up from the cushiony couch, dropping a bowl of popcorn onto the floor in the process. He glanced at his senpai nervously, looking around to see if anything was missing. "M-Marui-senpai, what in the world's wrong?"

The said third year was in a state of extreme distress. "My gum! My last pack of green apple gum! I FORGOT IT AT THE BAR LOUNGE AND I HAVEN'T HAD ONE IN THE LAST TWO HOURS!" he wailed.

Akaya sweat dropped. "Uh…ok then… wait," His eyes narrowed suspiciously "Why in the world were you in the bar lounge?"

Marui blinked in surprise. "Wow, Bakaya's gotten sharper!" He grinned mischievously, drawing closer to Akaya. "You see, I decided to break the rules and….have some alcohol, a small azure cocktail. It was out of this world! The perfect balance of flavors and aromas nearly made me faint with delight!" He burst out laughing as Akaya's eyes turned as wide as saucers. "Geez, I take back what I said about you being sharper! I was joking you know, you think I wouldn't get caught going into the bar lounge and drinking alcohol?" He yawned, rubbing his eyes. It was 3:30AM, after all. Just for fun, Marui had asked Akaya to stay up all night with him to watch a marathon of movies. Akaya had agreed on the spot, but instantly regretted it when he saw that they were going to watch horror movies. He knew it was too late to say no, because the teasing he would get about not wanting to watch horror movies would taunt him for the rest of his life.

"So what _were_ you doing in there?"

Marui sighed "Bakaya, there aren't only alcohol beverages in there. They serve actual, normal drinks in there, like…you know, apple juice? I just went in there to take a look around while grabbing some juice, I mean, it's a bar lounge! Who wouldn't be curious? But seriously, why would they need a bar lounge in an _under seventeen _camp? It's completely beyond me, the genius!"

"A self-proclaimed genius" Akaya muttered under his breath. Marui's eyes instantly flashed with annoyance, then surprisingly settled down calmly. Akaya gulped. _That can't be a good thing…_

"So then, Aka-chan~! Would you like to go to the bar lounge at this late hour and grab my precious pack of gum for me, your genius senpai?" He settled back onto his couch, smirking evilly.

Akaya seized up in fear. "Nani? N-no way! I'd get killed for wandering around at 3AM in the morning! And it's all dark and stuff! People will think I'm an intruder!"

Marui threw his arms up in the air in surrender. "Sorry then, forgive me. I guess I overestimated you…too scared to go huh? I guess it's because of the movies, I see, I understand. It looks like I'll have to ask someone else who's capable, like-"

"WHATEVER! DARKNESS, INTRUDERS, BAR LOUNGE, IT'S NOT TOO MUCH FOR ME!" Akaya yelled, eyes flashing with determination…but they weren't red. Not anymore. Marui smiled, mainly in relief that Akaya's eyes hadn't turned red. He knew all too well that Akaya could suffer some serious brain damage if allowed to tap into his devil mode too much. "Good, then I'll see you in thirty!" He waved his kohai off, watching him rush off outside without a backwards glance. He chuckled "I'm really happy Echizen came to the Ocean Festival*! I really learned the density of Bakaya's brain because of him!" He then stuck his feet up onto a table, and played the paused movie.

_Back with Ryoma and company:_

"Yosh," Kenya started "We've got the 100 balls, 50 bars of soap, and 15 bottles of both conditioner and shampoo! Am I missing anything?" Tanishi stepped out of the U-17 shed, followed by Ryoma. "I don't think so."

"Hmm" Ryoma mused "We just need the saké now."

Kenya groaned. "Why the hell do we need to grab it? Look, the bar lounge is seriously guarded! There are even Dobermans, for god's sake! Has security always been this tight?"

Ryoma smirked in reply. "Then we just have to make sure we don't get caught."

Tanishi made a face, pouting. "Why should we do this? The balls and soap are ok and all, I mean, they're for us, but what's the point of the saké? You had a good point back there, he probably has a shed full of saké! By the way, this doesn't even have anything to do with tennis!"

"But" Ryoma said, looking back at them with determination in his gleaming gold eyes. "I can't bear the thought of going back and telling him that we couldn't do it."

Kenya and Tanishi looked slightly abashed. "W-well, yeah, you're right". Tanishi stood up to look around the clearing "But we really do need to be careful, or-"

"WAAAHHHH!"

* * *

_Yawn_. Akaya strolled down the halls to the dorms near the bar lounge, humming. It was really quiet, the type of quiet that made people feel like every noise they made was too loud. He twirled a strand of wavy hair around his fingers, sighing. "What in the world am I going to do if someone sees me?" he wondered out loud. "What am I supposed to say? 'I'm going in there to get a half-eaten pack of green apple gum?' They'll think I'm crazy!" A beam of light from a room ahead of him caught his eye. He stopped, startled. _What, people are still awake at this time? Are they…training?_ He edged closer to the door, straining to hear the muffled voices.

-"You see, I've been hearing things about…_.that_…"

-"Yeah, I know. Around this time of year, someone always sees the ghost of the deserter, that wanders around looking for it's missing body parts. It's head is the only thing that appears though, according to the rumors. If you do this spell, then it's said that the ghost will leave you alone! I just mastered it, but I need to keep practicing! There's no point in learning the spell if you can't use it when you need to."

-"Seriously? Teach it to me, I don't want to get haunted! I just got here!" The guy laughed, then started his 'spell'

-"Step, step, one two, one two, turn and Ina Bauer! Step, step, one two, one two, turn and Ina Bauer!"

Akaya rolled his eyes, sweat dropping. _What the heck is that? Ghost of the deserter? This guy must have been a horror movie freak like Marui-senpai and watched too many of them. _He walked away from the door and continued down to the bar lounge.

* * *

"Oshitari! Keep it down!" Tanishi hissed urgently, whacking Kenya in the head.

"Shut up, Tanishi!" Kenya retorted, annoyed. "I thought that was a Doberman, just look at it!"

"That's my line!" Tanishi continued, clenching his fists "Just look at it, it's too still to be a Doberman!"

Ryoma examined the statue of the dog, tapping it gently with a finger. "Tanishi-san's right, it's not a Doberman. It's just a stat-"He cut off abruptly, examining the statue more closely. There was an all too familiar gleam in it's eyes. _This Doberman's eyes…look like cameras._ He opened his mouth to say this, but then remember something that Kabuto had told him.

_Flashback:_

"_Hey," Kabuto turned around quickly "I almost forgot to mention, it's kinda Coach Saito's mission too, so he'll be watching you guys as you make your way through."_

"_Coach Saito?"_

"_Yeah, so in other words, avoid the regular cameras, the ones that are out in the open. The ones that are hidden are for Coach Saito's viewing pleasure, so don't worry about those. I think there was a camera in a tree last year, disguised as a bird. The year before that had a fish camera."_

"Echizen?"

Ryoma shook his head. "No, it's nothing. Let's keep going."

In the U-17 staff room, Coach Saito was watching them with amusement. "So they're already here, huh? The kid seems pretty sharp…he already noticed a camera. But why didn't he do anything about it? This is going to be interesting…I wonder how far they're going to get this year."

* * *

**So that's it for this chapter. How was it? Reviews are appreciated! Btw, I stand true to what I said in the last chapter, this fanfic will eventually revolve around Ryoma. For now, it's revolving around the anime episodes XD. Next chapter's going to be "The (not so) Secret Mission Part II", where the laser part will be. I hope this chapter was pretty good or satisfactory at least. I can't think of any preview stuff, so yea XP**

*** The Ocean Festival is the festival that Rikkaidai hosted in Pairpuri episode 8. Akaya was dressed as Cinderella for a play that Yukimura directed, but didn't want to do it after Echizen and Momo laughed at him. In the end, Echizen teased Akaya and Akaya fell for it, showing how easily he fell for things. But in the very end, Echizen was the one who had to play Cinderella. The rest you can watch if you haven't already XD I felt bad for Echizen, but it was really funny!**


	4. The Not so Secret Mission II

**Yo! :D Here's chapter 4, after one week and 3 days. I was planning for this to be updated in two weeks, but whatever. (*UPDATE: Pfffft. Have you seen my update speeds these days?) I really need some thinking time for the next chapter. This chapter involves a lot of fighting on Kenya and Tanishi's part XD. **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own prince of tennis. La di da. **

**Btw, it isn't Akaya in the first part. Just saying that beforehand. When I read it over I thought "Hey, it sounds like it could be Akaya"**

**And so, here's chapter 4, the (not so) Secret Mission II. Please review :D they're greatly appreciated! Constructive Criticism is appreciated too, just not stuff like "you suck" plz XD… Enjoy!**

Chapter 4: The (not so) Secret Mission II

"….."

A trembling second year gingerly pulled himself out of the shadows of a tree. He shuddered, teeth chattering uncontrollably. "K-k-k-kuso, this is horrible…I got lost, need to find my way back…if I get caught, then…" he winced, unable to stand the thought of the punishment he would receive…not to mention the teasing. He tightened his green bandana.

"I-it's ok, it's ok…" he stammered, trying to ease his fried nerves.

_Don't underestimate Kaido Kaoru!_ He thought to himself, a weak attempt to pep himself up. Kaido looked around desperately, trying to remember where he had come from. You see, when Kaido ran off screaming into the sunset, he never actually came back. He had just kept on running and running until he finally fell into the same river as Ryoma and the others and ended up at U-17. By now, he was feeling pretty sorry for himself. All he wanted to do right now was to curl up into a bed full of cuddly kitties, puppies and fluffballs. Unlike what he was doing right now, standing outside in the rain at 3AM in a place where he was kicked out from with no one to help him. He paced back and forth on the muddy grass, wanting someone, anyone to come out and talk to him_. Even that baka Momoshiro would be good company right now_, Kaido thought worriedly. A sudden thump of footsteps jolted him into action and back into the cover of the shadows. _Never mind_, he thought, frightened. _I don't want to get caught!_

Fortunately for him, it was just Atobe Keigo, who was on his way to the courts for some late night/early morning practice. Kaido shrank back even further. Being teased by the losers was bad enough – having the annoying Ice King laughing and looking down on him would be too much for his already damaged pride. Tensing up suddenly, Atobe froze where he stood, eyes narrowing. He held a hand to his head, initiating his well-known Insight, and turned towards the suspect.

"Ahn? What are you doing here?" No answer. Kaido huddled closer to his tree, holding his breath. Atobe shook his head, annoyed that he had been ignored. "Ore-sama asked you a question…why are you ignoring Ore-sama's presence? What manners you have." Still no answer. By now, Atobe had gotten quite irritated. He stormed over to the nearest tree, tearing aside some branches in his wake.

"_Chotaro!"_

Kaido nearly fell over in relief – it had simply been one of the Hyotei starters that Keigo had seen, not him. Chotaro drew out into the clearing, smiling ruefully. "Hey buchou. What are _you_ doing out here?"

Atobe sighed, taking off his jersey and wringing it out. "Isn't it obvious? Ore-sama's here to train. Ore-sama's marvelous skills mustn't get rusty."

"Come on, buchou, we'll catch cold standing out here. We should go back inside and sleep. Or if you want, we could go train some more." He looked up at the gray sky, smiling. "It looks like the rain's finally letting up."

Kaido hardly dared to breathe as the pair walked away from his hiding place. _That was a close one_, he thought, wiping the sweat off his forehead. The Hyotei members had been chatting near his tree way too long for his liking. A movement from the inside the window of a nearby building caught his eye. He creeped up to the window and peered into a corner, not wanting the people inside to see him. His eyes widened.

"_E-Echizen?_ And there's Oshitari, and that meat loaf Tanishi too!"

Inside, the trio were running down a hallway, trying to make their way through the heavily guarded camp to the bar lounge, with Coach Saito watching their every move. Kaido stared even more closely, bewildered. _What are they doing? Stealing something? I know, maybe that drunk coach put them up to it. That bastard…_ He decided that it would probably be best to follow them, after all, they probably would probably know the way back to the mountains.

Meanwhile, Ryoma and the others were…having a little trouble. They had so far gotten through two 'obstacles' to get to the bar lounge – one being a hallway full of cameras that only had a few blind spots (those being the squares on the floor that Ryoma had found with Tanishi's unknown hinting.) and another being a code that was found (again, by Ryoma) in a nearby painting. They had also climbed on top of a roof to get to the bar lounge building (this was Kenya's favorite part) and avoided the sharp-toothed Dobermans. The rain had helped conceal their scent a bit, which had helped them sneak past the guard dogs. It would have been perfectly fun if it weren't for the fact that they really couldn't be captured under any circumstances.

But now they had a problem. They were only about 100 meters away from the bar lounge that was easily in view, but there seemed to be something blocking them. That something was a flurry of bright red lasers, all arranged to catch anyone who tried to sneak past them. They were also set up to set off an alarm when passed through, which would never pass unnoticed.

Kenya took a deep breath, trying to count to ten in his mind. _Don't snap…_he thought, gritting his teeth. _Don't snap…Don't snap…_

Behind him, Tanishi gulped. "T-that doesn't look too good." he muttered.

Kenya snapped, spinning around to kick a stunned Tanishi. "Of course it's not good! It's _HORRIBLE!_ How are we supposed to get through those? A kid could barely fit through those lasers, let alone a fatty like you!" he roared.

Tanishi instantly seized up with anger. "Well then, let's see how Mr. Stringbean gets through it! If you're confident enough, that is!" he retorted, sneering angrily.

Getting increasingly pissed off with every passing second, Kenya stomped away from Tanishi and went towards the lasers. "Very well then, watch how it's _supposed _to be done!" he yelled.

Echizen sighed, cocking his head. "Hey, wouldn't it be better if I tried? I'm the smallest, and your balance sucks."

Kenya snapped for yet a second time in the last 30 seconds. "_WILL YOU SHUT UP?_ How can such a small kid be so blunt and rude? If I say I can do it, I WILL!"

Ryoma sweat dropped. _Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed._ "…Just…be careful. Don't fall or anything."

At this, Kenya slightly softened, and relaxed his tense features a bit. He smiled. "Tha-"

"If you trip the alarm, we're blaming it all on you."

* * *

Akaya entered the bar lounge building, flexing his sore arm. "Itai, that Coach Tsuge guy's so tough on us…..Marui-senpai's not any better either, I'm so going to get my revenge for this…..I know! I'm gonna buy all the green apple gum in stores so he can never have any again!" He noticed a telltale red glow emitting from around the corner. He blinked, and rubbed his eyes. _Has that always been there?_ he wondered. He pondered on this thought for a bit, then cautiously approached the light.

"WAAAAGGH!"

He leaped back, heart stabbing with a jolt of sharp fear. _W-w-w-what the hell is that? _There was a huge, ever moving shadow creeping up along the ground in the red light, getting bigger then smaller, and constantly changing shapes. For someone with strong imagination, like Akaya…..it wasn't a great sight. In the darkness of the night, and the silence of it too, it was pretty spooky. Akaya's mind wandered back to where he didn't want it to go – the conversation of the two high schoolers.

_Previously:_

_-"You see, I've been hearing things about….that…"_

_-"Yeah, I know. Around this time of year, someone always sees the ghost of the deserter, that wanders around looking for it's missing body parts. He tried to escape from a war he was in, but a hunter cut him down. It's head is the only thing that appears though, according to the rumors. Now he haunts this camp._

_N-n-n-no w-way,_ Akaya thought to himself, sweating. _There's no way ghosts could exist! But…_ Suddenly, his mind wandered to another forbidden place – the horror movies he had watched for the whole night. Scenes flashed through his mind, varying from bloodstained wooden doors and headless bodies to shiny teeth dripping with blood and dismembered limbs with bones sticking out of the torn skin. Then he saw the ghost of the deserter in his mind, the head of the ghost, looking for it's hands with it's glowing eyes. He paled, feeling sick to his stomach.

_Oh god, oh god, oh god god god!_ He whimpered, plastering himself against the wall. _I'm too young to die!_

"Damn it, _WHERE'S MY RIGHT HAND?"_ Kenya yelled, struggling to keep himself still. Ryoma flinched, biting his lip. "It's right in front of you! Keep it there!" He replied, hoping that Kenya's balance wouldn't choose to betray him at that very moment. Kenya swayed, legs trembling. "B-but where's my left hand!" Tanishi buried his head into his arms, distressed. "It's behind you! Move it- hey! Watch out, there's one coming from your left!"

"WAAGH!" Kenya managed to do some kind of sideways flip (which he later called The Super Ultimate Speed sonic Flip of the Speed Star of Naniwa – with Kintaro's help and Ryoma's exasperation.) and avoided tripping the laser. It came at the cost of ramming into Ryoma, and the pair crashed into a messy heap on the ground, with the unlucky first year taking the brunt of the fall. Kenya quickly leaped up, then crouched down again beside the still boy worriedly. "E-Echizen, daijouga?"

Ryoma groaned and sat up, rubbing his temple. "Geez Kenya-san, you're heavy. Well, at least it wasn't Tanishi-san, he's at least double the weight of you."

A tick appeared on Higa's giant as he sniffed indigently. "Che, even when you bang your head against something, you're still cocky. I'm not fat!"

Kenya rolled his eyes. "You are!" he muttered. He got up, brushing himself off. "Ok, I'll do this again, I'm sure I'll get it this time. Echizen, you sure you're ok?"

Ryoma nodded, ignoring the persistent throb in his head. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Ok, but ask the Coach to check it out later, just to be safe."

"I don't think he would care."

And so Kenya tackled his enemy again – the lasers. 'This time', however, Kenya only got through three lasers before his side cramped up. A ripple of pain shot through his side, and so he did his special Naniwa flip and crashed into the ground once more, except that this time both Ryoma and Tanishi leapt out of the way, leaving the speed star to embrace all his pain alone.

"MY SIDE! MY SIDE'S CRAMPING UP!" Kenya rolled on the ground, twitching, and clutched his side in agony.

Tanishi began to grumble. "Oi, that's no good, try again!"

Kenya approached him, growling. "Are you kidding me? What's with this stupid special mission! Like seriously, there's no way to get through those lasers. We'll die trying!"

Tanishi's eyes turned into slits. "I didn't know the residents of Shitenhoji were so weak, giving up so easily! I should have known it the moment I laid eyes on that weird gay guy!"

"W-weird gay guy?" Kenya sputtered, "He's not- wait no, heis weird. I can't believe Yuuji threw away his chances of getting a beautiful girl for _that_. But anyways, that's not the point! Don't complain about things that you're hopeless at! Even without the lasers you'd barely fit down that hallway!"

Tanishi frowned, and try as he might, couldn't find a comeback. Ryoma sighed, scratching his head. _And he can't argue because it's oh-so-true, _he thought wearily.

"Hey, can't you guys save this for later? You're going to become the new Momo-senpai and Kaido-senpai at this rate, and you know that's a horrible, horrible thing."

Both Tanishi and Kenya turned on him, cursing. "SHUT UP! This has nothing to do with you!" they yelled.

Kenya added to it with a sharp "I don't give a crap about this special mission! That coach can go and get his precious sake himself! I'm sorry, but I _really _don't see how this is going to help us in the long run!"

Ryoma sighed, pulling his cap further down his head. Sounds from down the hallway made him quickly silence the fighting pair. "You two, be quiet!" he hissed urgently.

They stared at him in surprise, halting their argument. "What is it?" Kenya asked.

Ryoma struggled to make out the sounds. "I think someone's there." All three of them edged closer to the noise, trying to hear. It turned out it was Kirihara, who was saying something along the lines of,

"Step, step, one two, one two, turn and Ina Bauer!" By now, the unfortunate second- year had lost all of his wits and was rubbing his hands and chanting the 'spell' to try and make the 'ghost' go away.

Kenya arched an eyebrow, a look of bewilderment spreading across his face. "What the hell, is that Kirihara Akaya? What is he even saying? Maybe the training's been so hard, he's gone crazy." he guessed, chuckling in amusement.

Ryoma hesitated, looking back at the lasers. He ran the chant through his mind. _It couldn't be…_ "Step…step…one two, one two…turn and Ina Bauer." he murmured.

Kenya stared at him, blinking. "Echizen, you're spouting that crap too?"

Tanishi stepped away from him nervously. "M-maybe…it's a hypnotic spell that makes everyone who hears it say it!" He was going to plug his ears but then Kenya kicked him in the face.

"That's stupid!" he snapped, "Echizen's head must have disconnected with his senses or something when he hit it!"

Ryoma rolled his eyes, annoyed. "What's that supposed to mean?" he grumbled. Then his eyes lit up, and he smiled confidently. "We can make it through the lasers!" Seeing the others look of astonishment, he specified what he meant. "If we follow Kirihara-san's instructions, we can make it through!"

The Great Akaya Instructions pretty much went like this: "Step, step, one two, one two, turn and Ina Bauer! Kick, Punch, Ina Bauer! Axe kick, Ina Bauer! Ina Bauer, Ina Bauer, _INA BAUER!_"*

Kenya mistimed the landing of the last Ina Bauer and ended up falling over. "Che," he muttered, rubbing his sore knee, "there are way too many Ina Bauers! Is Kirihara trying to become a dance teacher or something?"

Ryoma nodded in agreement. "But we made it through," he said triumphantly, high fiving Kenya. "We made it through the trap." Behind a corner, Akaya was slumped down across a wall in relief, after the shadows had vanished. _T-thank god…I'm still alive!_

Kenya and Ryoma crept into the bar lounge, leaving an impatient Tanishi behind – Kenya had been more than right, and there was no way that he would ever Ina Bauer through the lasers. Kenya peered around the lounge, eyes wide.

"Whoa," he started, walking around, "There's a lot of sake here! Remind me why an under seventeen camp needs this much sake? What _are_ they trying to encourage?"

Ryoma shrugged, not caring much. "I guess (hope) this is more geared towards the coaches. C'mon, let's hurry up and fill the gourd, I really want to get some more sleep…or train, I guess. Any idea which one of these sakes is the finest?"

Kenya froze in his tracks, and turned towards Ryoma, laughing nervously. "Uh….I just hope that the Coach isn't too picky about his sakes…"

Ryoma shook his head, slightly exasperated. "I guess we can just pick a random-" he stopped mid-sentence, eyes fixed onto a certain drink.

Kenya turned to him. "Koshimae, what are you doing? Hurry up with the sake, I wanna get out of here! I feel like a criminal doing this!"

Ryoma pointed to a malicious, familiar poison in liquid form. "This is my senpai's juice…" Kenya instantly turned green at the sight of the deadly Inui Juice, leaping away from it in fear.

"What are you doing?" Ryoma asked with a sigh. "It won't hurt you if you don't drink it…most likely."

Kenya held a hand up against his nose, trying to protect himself as much as possible. "You know what they say – half the taste is in the smell…You know that Inui Juice probably claimed a lot of lives…it's a horrible, horrible thing…"

Ryoma smirked. "You think?" he started. He then held up the gourd and gave it a meaningful shake. "I think it can be pretty good at times like this."

Catching on to his idea, Kenya grinned mischievously. "Die, Mifune Coach!" they chorused, filling up the gourd. Kenya had actually been right about the smell, and they tried to lean away from the juice as its' dangerous fumes caused their eyes to burn and water. They closed the lid as quickly as possible and tightened the cap on the gourd, smiling in satisfaction.

"Perfect!" Kenya said happily. "Now let's go back and Ina Bauer through those lasers again!" His stomach growled, and he blushed, embarrassed. "I…I'm a little hungry…" he muttered sheepishly.

Ryoma's stomach growled in reply. "Yeah, me too…" He stopped, and looked at the fridge behind Kenya. "O-oi, Kenya-san, that's-"

"_FOOD!"_ Kenya yelped, and sprung towards the fridge, drooling. He thrust open the door and immediately tore into its' contents. He had honestly been starving because it was always the high schoolers who cooked, and so they had dibs on the meals. The majority of them were still jerks, so they hogged all of it. As a result, the middle schoolers only got about 35% of the food, and it was taking a toll on them (especially for people like Tanishi, Momo, and Kintaro).

Right behind him, Ryoma grabbed a hunk of meat off a shelf. He bit into it, savoring its' juices.

Kenya's eyes lit up as he found a basket of fruits on a nearby table. "Echizen look! There's even fruit here!" he crowed, digging into a banana. "ESCASTY!"

Ryoma saw a pack of sausages wrapped appealingly in the fridge. "There's sausage over here too!" He took a piece, and ate it with bread and an orange. "There's even Ponta…" he said longingly.

As they dug into their late night feast, they didn't even notice that their long forgotten friend was at that very moment charging into the lasers. He had been yelling at the top of his lungs for them to hurry up and bring some treats to him, but they hadn't heard him in their delight. What they did hear, however, was the unmistakable sound of a shrill alarm.

Kenya jumped up at the sound of the alarm, swearing. "T-Tanishi! What the hell!" The culprit took no notice of them as he chowed down on multiple assortments of meat and cheese.

Ryoma plugged his ears in shock as a combination of shrieks reached his ears. "W-what the hell was that?" he asked, wincing. "K-Kirihara-san?"

Kenya dove behind the counter, worried that someone would come in at that very moment. "There were two screams! Who was the other? Crap, was there a murder or something? Or was it because of the alarm?" He ducked in the earthquake pose before Ryoma dragged up him back up in exasperation.

Tanishi, who had eaten half of his fill in the mere minute that he had started, finally seemed to take note of the situation. "No way, the alarm went off?"

Ryoma whacked him in annoyance. "Yes it did you idiot! Let's get out of here! Bring food if you want to, and we'll take off!"

"Great," Kenya muttered, pulling Tanishi to his feet. "You got enough food? Then _RUN!"_

* * *

"WAAAAAAAAHH!" Akaya screamed for a second time as an array of horribly shaped shadows dove into his field of sight. The sounds of the alarm and approaching footsteps were too much for him, and he tore off shrieking down the hallway. "STEP STEP ONE TWO ONE TWO! TURN AND INA BAUER!" he wailed, running outside to the courts.

Atobe and Chotaro were there, eyes widening as they saw a screaming Akaya rip down the path in fear.

Chotaro tried to grab the freaked-out Akaya. "O-oi, K-Kirihara? What in the world happened? Do you know what set off the alarm?" but the petrified ace tore away from him and continued down the path, still screaming.

Atobe blinked, confused by the behavior of the normally confident second year. "What in the world happened…" he wondered, looking at the bar lounge in which Akaya had come from. "Did something happen there? And why's Kirihara yelling a dance routine? I didn't know he was into that stuff."

Meanwhile, Ryoma, Tanishi and Kenya had managed to run all the way to the river in which they had come from, with the speed of an Olympic runner (then again, Kenya was the one who had run on water, so it wasn't a surprise) without being noticed. They collapsed onto the ground, panting.

Tanishi coughed, taking a quick drink from a juice he had brought with him. "G-god, Oshitari, you run too quickly. I could barely keep up!"

"Kuh," Kenya started, "Maybe that's because you brought 5 pounds of meat with you! You tripped the alarm, you idiot! We could have eaten more if it weren't for you!"

Before an angered Tanishi could yell that he had been forgotten, Ryoma stepped in between them. "If you two have time to fight, we have time to get back…" he stopped, staring into the river. He pointed to a flailing object. "Hey…"

Kenya groaned, wanting to lie down and sleep and ignore the object…._person_….that had fallen into the river. _It's too mean to just leave him_ he thought ruefully, and ran over to the edge of the river, with Ryoma and Tanishi in front of him. Together, they managed to somehow pull the person out, who happened to be Kaido. When he had entered the bar lounge building, he had seen the shadows, which had risen his scare meter up by 50%. Then he had seen the biggest shadow (Tanishi), which had risen the meter up by another 40%. Then Akaya's scream had pushed the meter to 180%, and so he had bolted, screaming, running until he had fallen into the same river yet again.

"Kaido-senpai…" Ryoma muttered, "Don't tell me you never came back after running off screaming into the sunset?"

Kaido froze, paling. "U-uh…um…." he stammered, looking around nervously.

Kenya shook his head wearily. "Forget it, I'm too tired to ask you questions, or to even laugh at you like I normally would."

Kaido looked at them gratefully, while trying to ignore the last remark, hoping that they wouldn't tell anyone about the experience. "Great, then let's go back to the mountain. I fell into the river, so I don't know the way back. I thought I could just follow the river back, but it splits up so many times and there are so many different mountains that I don't even know which way leads to the right one. You guys do, right?"

"…."

"Crap."

_Two hours later:_

"We're back after our long, grueling journey!" Kenya announced, acting like a soldier who had just come back from a battle at sea. "REPORTING IN! We've got the-"

Coach Nyudo ignored Kenya and snatched the gourd from Ryoma's arms. "Forget that crap, I've been waiting for this! I was worried that you wouldn't make it back before daybreak!" He took a few swings out of the gourd.

Kenya smirked, eyes twinkling in anticipation. _Let that coach suffer!_

Tanishi surpressed an evil chuckle. _Wait till we see that look on his face! _An image of the three laughing filled his mind, and he giggled, imagining the stories he would tell to the other middle schoolers about Coach Nyudo's poisoning.

A grin stretched slowly onto Ryoma's face, as he watched the coach fall into the trap. _I'm going to thank Inui-senpai for this…_

"HA HA HA!" The coach chortled with laughter and satisfaction, licking his lips. "That's some good stuff!" The three gaped in the shock that the coach actually liked – no, could actually _stand_ Inui Juice. They looked at each other, frozen.

"Uh…" Kenya started, getting over his surprise, "We'll be going now!" They saluted, and made their way quickly to the cave, when Coach Nyudo's growl stopped them.

"Come back here."

_Ngh!_ They thought, horrified. _He knows we tried to poison him!_

"Leave the food."

_Crap!_ They thought, horrified. _Even worse!_

They reluctantly left the food, being chocolate and a half drunken can of Ponta from Ryoma, two pieces of bread and cheese from Kenya, and 5 sausages, 2 salamis, and 3 pieces of ham from Tanishi. There had actually been more, but they had eaten about half of it on the way back. Before they could make their escape, Coach Nyudo stopped them again.

"Wait."

_Gah!_ They thought, horrified. _This time he really does know we tried to poison him!_

He reached a hand out slowly towards Ryoma. Kenya and Tanishi blanched. _He's going to hit Echizen first? No way! He's heartless! _They winced and closed their eyes, waiting for the blow to strike him. They waited some more. And waited. They finally opened their eyes, curious, and were stunned to see that Coach Nyudo _– Coach Nyudo –_ had put a hand on Ryoma's head and was examining it, having noticing the bump. Ryoma looked just as shocked as they did, his eyebrow twitching slightly.

"Uh….umm…" he muttered uncomfortably.

Coach Nyudo took out an ice pack from a chest behind him. He tossed it to him. "Use that." Then he turned back to Kenya and Tanishi.

"Hmmm….you guys are all wet." He burst out laughing, "I can't believe you had this much trouble! I didn't think anyone was lame enough to get lost! You suck!" He went back into his cabin, still laughing at them. "You know what, as a reward, go and do 60000 swings right now!"

Kenya and Tanishi were fuming, cheeks flaming. "I can't believe I thought he was nice for a moment!" they roared.

Ryoma sighed, holding the ice pack to his head. _For one shining moment_…he thought_…I almost felt bad_ _for trying to poison him._

"Mada mada syne"*

**That's it for this chapter! What did you think about this chapter? I hope you liked it! Please review! Btw, I feel so bad about Kaido XD I'm going to stop bullying him.**

**Now Atobe's been mentioned XD I don't know why, but I like having other characters appear. That's why this isn't much of a Ryoma fanfic at the moment. I'm definitely having Liliadent Krauser in it at some point (does anyone else think he's awesome XD)**

**1* - This scene's in the anime, for anyone who hasn't watched it. It's in episode 8.**

**2* - This is Ryoma's way of saying "We still have lot's more to work on" instead of mada mada dane, being "You still have lot's more to work on"**

_Omake:_

Akaya shivered, nervous. He was sitting in an interrogation room of U-17. The guards who had seen him running out from the bar lounge had thought that _he_ had tripped that alarm instead of the ghost! _Stupid!_ He leaned back in his chair, peering cautiously at the guard that was going to question him. The guard was checking a file, Akaya's file, probably to see if Akaya had a record. Akaya groaned, feeling extremely depressed. _That guard looks so stern…seriously, why are most guards so stern and scary looking? Is it just me who thinks that?_ Another guard came in and sat down across the wooden table next to the other guard, joined by a hungry looking Doberman. They started questioning him.

"Ahem. Why did you go into the bar lounge at 3AM when you were supposed to be in bed, in your dorm, or on authorized grounds?"

Akaya frowned. "I went to go grab a half-eaten pack of green apple gum for my senpai…" he trailed off, sweat dropping. Even he could hear the insanity in that alibi.

The two guards stared at him_. Is his crazy?_ they thought. "Wait…so you went into the bar lounge at 3AM just to get a half-eaten pack of green apple gum."

"Uh…y-yes…" Akaya suddenly remembered something. "I know! You can ask Marui-senpai! He's the one who asked me to get the gum!"

"And you decided to go and get it rather than wait until a reasonable time."

Akaya froze. "U-um…he…um….I couldn't do anything about it!" he protested.

The guard looked at him in exasperation. "You could have said no. Face it, you were the only one there at 3AM and the alarm was set off. A large assortment of food and drinks went missing from the bar lounge. Kirihara Akaya, I'm afraid to say that you will be dropped and banned from this camp as a result of you breaking the rules and stealing items from the property of U-17."

"No!" Akaya cried. "You've got to believe me, I just went there to grab the gum! I wasn't an intruder!"

The guard looked like he wanted to say more, but a laughing voice interrupted him.

"He's right, he did nothing wrong." It was Coach Saito, who had been standing behind the door for the last 10 minutes. He was just waiting for the best moment to intrude and seem cool. He winked at Akaya and gave him a thumbs up.

"You're good to go!"

_Later:_

Akaya walked slowly back to his dorm, ready to fall over and go to sleep_. I can't believe I was almost dropped from the camp! _he thought angrily_. All because of that- _he stopped, not wanting to think about the ghost again. _All because….of an intruder that probably wasn't me!_ It was only then that he realized that he had forgotten two things. One, he had gone into the bar lounge when he wasn't supposed to, so he had actually intruded. Second,

"Oh god damn it, I forgot to get the gum!"

_Owari_


	5. Preparations

**Hi everyone! I had a few tests last week, so I took a while to update... (but that's what they all say XD tests…the mortal enemy of fanfic writers.). Anyways, here's chapter 5, Preparations. It's a combination of some talking and the first part of the sportsman hunt. Actually no, the Sportsman hunt starts next chapter...gomen.**

**The other day I was looking at the pairings of pot. I loved 'Eye-sight pair' (EijiXRyoma), 'Dreadful pair' (AkutsuXKaido), 'Unsocial pair' (KaidoXRyoma) and I really loved 'Toxic pair' (NiouXRyoma) XD although I've never seen a fanfic on RyomaXNiou before.**

**So enjoy!**

**Oh yeah, I forgot the disclaimer XP**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Prince of tennis! I only own any plot that's not part of pot.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 5: Preparations

"_Look! It's snowing! It's actually snowing! Isn't it pretty?"_

"…_.yeah."_

"…_Hey, you could be a little more excited, you know…I'm really happy! I've been wishing every night for it to snow on this day!"_

"_Why…? It snows a lot in the winter anyways…" _

"_Well, you know, today's special. "_

"_Oh…I see, you wanted to have a white Christmas Eve…"_

"_No, you're wrong…I…"_

* * *

-zen! Echizen! _ECHIZEN!_

_-tweak! _

"ITAI!" Ryoma sprang up, still wrapped up like a cocoon in his sleeping bag, snapping at the culprit who was currently tweaking his nose. "W-what the hell are you doing!" he yelled, swatting his hand at Momo.

Momo peered down at his kohai in disbelief. "Echizen, how the hell are you not awake? Coach Nyudo just invaded the cave with a trumpet! He blew a bugle call right into my ears! I think half of us went deaf… I can't even hear Mamushi cursing anymore! It was horrible! I can't believe you slept through that, you douchebag!" he retorted, pulling on Ryoma's ear.

Ryoma sighed, rubbing his eyes wearily. He blinked at the sun's rays as they shone in through the cave, reflecting off the slippery walls. It gave the cave an eerie look. He almost smiled. _I feel like I'm in a hotel…_he thought to himself ruefully. _Everything's different..._

Momo dragged him out of his sleeping bag, while still chattering on. Ryoma wasn't too sure how he could be so energetic in the morning, even managing to jump around like Kikumaru. _Speaking of which_, he thought,

"Momo-senpai, it's…what time is it?" There was too much sun for it to be 3AM, or even 6AM, although he couldn't really figure out why the coach would let them sleep in. Maybe he was feeling generous today…or more likely, the Inui Juice had managed to poison him into postponing the training or made him go mad and become somewhat nice. Ryoma didn't know which he preferred.

Momo shrugged. "I don't really know. No one has the luxury of a watch here. But judging from the position of the sun, I'd say it's about 11:25PM, give or take a few."

Ryoma nodded absentmindedly. "Great…" He paused, then threw a rock at Momo, embarrassed. "Oi, that's not funny, senpai!"

Momo burst out laughing, whacking a dusty pillow at Ryoma in return. "Yeah, but I couldn't resist, you looked so far away!" He stopped, then cocked his head thoughtfully, beginning to frown. "You sure slept well…had a good dream?" he asked, looking slightly unhappy.

Ryoma stretched his arms out, smiling, and a bit puzzled by the look on Momo's face. "…I guess."

"_I guess?"_ Momo started, pouting. "You were freaking smiling in your sleep! What the hell were you dreaming about? While everyone was lying around suffering, you were grinning like you had just won a competition! Totally sharing the pain here!"

Ryoma's face turned a slight red as his eyes widened. He quickly turned away from Momo, blushing. "Y-you're…s-seriously? It…was nothing…I was just a bit relaxed." his face continued to flush, and he put his cap on, hoping that Momo would change the subject. _Was I really smiling in my sleep? Lame!_ he thought, while exercising his bank of colorful language in his mind.

Momo rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue. "No kidding! Sorry to have knocked you into reality! C'mon, let's get outta here, and into the world of hell. Coach Nyudo's waiting." With that, he trotted towards the mouth of the cave cheerfully, singing a shampoo song on the way. It seemed to be one of Momo's good days (and he had a lot of them).

Behind Momo, Ryoma's mind went back to the dream he had. It was one of those dreams where he couldn't quite remember what it had been about when he woke up. Even so, he could still remember the last sentence of it vividly. He closed his eyes, and smiled gently at the memory.

"_No…you're wrong…I wanted it to be snowing on your birthday."_

But deep down, he couldn't shake off the unusual sense of uneasiness and fear he had felt from the dream.

_Outside Coach Nyudo's cabin:_

Momo and Ryoma sprinted over to the fire pit, where the rest of the middle schoolers had already gathered. It looked like the high schoolers were either out training or still sleeping, as they weren't anywhere to be seen. Not that anyone really cared. Everyone was thankful for the break away from the vicious high schoolers. Ryoma yawned and took in the scene around him sleepily. "So what's going on here?" he asked Ryo curiously, who had been one of the first to arrive.

Ryo plopped down onto a log next to the fire pit, fingering a chunk of blackened wood thoughtfully. "I don't really know. It's not like we're being given great benefits though, the high schoolers are still asleep. I heard something about there being a big announcement – something special to prepare for. In the meantime, we're supposed to make breakfast for the high schoolers..." he grumbled, tossing the wood back onto the pit.

Sanada sat down next to Ryoma, wearing his tough demeanor as always. "I don't understand why the coach didn't wake us up earlier. Judging by the position of the sun, it's around 9:30AM…" he trailed off, looking ahead of him. "I don't suppose something's happened…?"

Ryoma sighed, bored. "So we're up way later than usual, there's going to be a huge announcement, and we need to make breakfast for the high schoolers that are still snoozing. So where should we start?"

Momo appeared behind him, waving a few cooking utensils he had found in the air. "I guess we start with the cooking. You can't wage war on an empty stomach, right?" he said, winking cheekily at the group.

An excited Kintaro bounded up behind Momo, looking like he was already half-starved. "Yeah! COOKING! We finally get first dibs on the food! Take that, meanie high schoolers!" he yelled, striking a victory pose. "I may not look like it, but I'm amazing with food!"

Oishi took a moldy spoon from Momo, wrinkling his nose. "These are disgusting, we're really going to cook with these? That coach doesn't respect the skillful art of preparing food! But where do we cook? With what? What are we even supposed to cook? How many of us should be cooking? For how many people? And with what portions?" The rest of the middle schoolers had to use all their self-restraint to not roll their eyes at the constantly worried mother hen. Just then, a spiky blue haired high schooler popped out from a tree near them, blinking hesitantly. He was an average height for a high schooler, with ice blue hair and stunning blue eyes to match it. He looked extremely wary of the middle schoolers, but was still polite.

"Eto…O-ohayo…" he mumbled, attempting a little wave. "D-did you sleep well?"

All the middle schoolers instantly fell silent, watching the timid high schooler's every move. He cowered under the gaze of the 27 middle schoolers, nervous. It wasn't every day a high schooler tried to be friendly to the group. Other than Kabuto, none of the high schoolers had even given the middle schoolers so much as a friendly glance. They simply found it easier and more satisfying to glare at them or ignore them.

"Uh…" he started, gathering his wits. "A-Akana-s-san is in charge of the cooking with Himura-san, Daisuke, and I... Um, well, at least we're one of the groups in charge of it…we rotate the shifts. And we're high schoolers…I think. Coach Nyudo's sleeping. He went straight back to sleep after waking you guys up. You're supposed to cook at the cooking shed, so come with me, kay? Um…I'm…k-kinda nice, so let's establish a friendly relationship, kay?" he gulped, wringing his hands together and looking away.

Everyone stared at each other, then silently began to follow the blunette. He seemed nice enough. He darted around a few clumps of trees, then ducked behind the high schoolers' cabin. After a few minutes walk, they were at the cooking shed, right next to the waterfall where Ryoma had first met Kabuto. The clearing was quite a refreshing place to be, with a beautiful waterfall right next to it, providing them with a light spray of watery mist. The cooking shed was dark brown and slippery from all the water, and looked like it was hosting lots of green mossy guests. On the other side of the clearing, far away from the waterfall, was a grill, stove, and oven. There was a lot of space for the middle schoolers to explore and relax. The high schooler sighed in relief, probably happy that he hadn't gotten killed by the middle schoolers (he seemed especially scared of Sanada and Kabaji).

"Himura-san! Akana-san! Daisuke!" he yelled.

The named three exited the wooden shed quickly, trying to avoid stepping on the rotten wood. The shed wasn't about to fall down or anything, but it was rotting at an alarming rate. A brown haired high schooler with half of his hair shoulder length and the other half shorter seemed suspicious of them. He was about an inch or two taller than the blue haired high schooler but was a bit shorter than the purple haired high schooler next to him. That very high schooler, with gray eyes and glasses, looked somewhat friendly like the blunette. He seemed like one of those straight A students who could ace any exam if they tried, those doctor types. And the last high schooler…well, he looked just like the guy who had led them there.

Momo did a double take. "T-twins!" he exclaimed, surprised. "Amazing, you guys look the exact same! I can't tell the difference between you two at all!"

"Yeah," their guide started, blushing sheepishly. He stepped in front of the high schoolers to make the informal introductions. "This is Minato Daisuke, and I'm Minato Kei. It may be hard to tell, but there_ are_ small differences between us." he said, grinning.

The middle schoolers stared boggle-eyed. _And the difference between them is…?_

An amused Kei chuckled at the baffled group. "If you can't tell the difference between us, call us Keisuke. That's our nickname."

The brown haired high schooler stepped up to them, bowing slightly. "I'm Matsuhiro Akana. Yoroshiku. The guy next to me, this smart looking four eyed prune head, is Nanase Himura."

Himura fumed slightly, edging up to Akana. "Did you just call me a prune head, poopy-doo?" he muttered darkly.

While the two had a face off, Daisuke took the advantage to explain the cooking rules to them.

"Ok, so it's really simple. All the supplies are in this shed. There's a river right here, so you can wash any dirty utensils there. Believe me, you'll find some. Try and clear out the spiderwebs too, before you start. We tried doing so yesterday, but those spiders don't really like it when humans destroy their home, so they remake their webs within three days. And…out here, there's one grill, one portable gas stove, one small oven and one big waterfall. May not seem like much to you, but that grill's huge. You could fit two people on it, if not three." he explained.

"There's some food in here," Kei continued, "But I'm sorry to say there isn't much of it left. Just some crates of potatoes near the back. The high school cooks used up most of it yesterday." he finished apologetically. "I guess they knew you guys were coming next and all..."

Daisuke jumped in after his twin, "That's about all you need to know. The high schoolers will be woken up in an hour, so breakfast is expected in an hour and a half. The announcement's going to be after that, 'kay? Oh by the way, you guys do get first dibs on the food. That's the advantage of getting up an hour earlier. Have fun!" With that, the four high schoolers, with Akana and Himura still arguing, rushed back to their cabin for more sleep. For a few minutes afterwards, the middle schoolers were silent, having been swept up and back out of the moment too quickly. They were honestly bewildered and confused.

Ryoma was the first to break the awkward silence. "So…" he started. "We should start."

Then what Kei said finally sank into their minds. "Wait…_potatoes?" _they exclaimed, astounded.

"What is this, Iron Chef America?" Jackal muttered, annoyed by the lack of choice in their ingredients.

Beside him, Taka fidgeted nervously. "No way! Only potatoes? What are we going to make with that?" he groaned, racking his brain for recipes that involved pure potato.

Kintaro quickly stepped into the shed. "I'm sure he was just joking…." he muttered, glancing around in the near-empty space.

"No he wasn't!" Zaizen yelled, having already examined it. "There are really only potatoes in here! The high schoolers must have used up all the other stuff yesterday…on purpose too, knowing them. I guess those bastards wanted to make our lives harder, even at the cost of having a bad breakfast."

"You've got to be joking," Ryoma muttered, pulling his cap down. "What a bother, let's just make potato pancakes then."

"Stop teasing," Momo said, frowning. He then saw Ryoma grabbing a potato and a grater, and asked, "You're actually going to make a potato pancake? How do you make those? Do they only need potatoes?"

Ryoma smirked back at him. "Well then, why don't I give you all a cooking lesson?"

* * *

_One hour and 50 grated potatoes later:_

"Waah, finally done grating!" Gakuto flexed his arms, exhausted. "There's only half an hour left!" he warned.

Ryoma picked up a frying pan and handed it to Gakuto. "Pour some of the grated potato into it please, then give it to someone to put on the stove."

"You really don't need anything else?" he asked, doubting the rookie's cooking skills.

"Nope, just potato. But soysauce is good on the side." Ryoma replied, wanting to look for some in the shed.

Taka grinned, and magically produced two bottles of soysauce from his bag. "Think this soysauce will do the job?"

Inui flipped into his notebook. "Chances of sushi chef Taka-san having soysauce with him from home at a tennis camp…89.6%"

Ryoma took the bottles, smiling. "This is great, Kawamura-senpai!" He was quite fond of Japanese food, and the stuff from Taka's was no exception. Hearing commotion from near him, he eyed a certain pair who was cooking on the grill warily. They seemed to be having an…_odd _argument, one that only two of the middle schoolers in the camp could ever have. Everyone fell silent as they took in the agrument that was happening.

"B-but Koharu!" Yuuji wailed, crying. "I thought you loved me! We made up, remember? We pledged our love to each other under the moonlight!" he cried tearfully, holding a wilted flower in his hands.

"Hmph!" Koharu sniffed, "I saw you yesterday, you were gazing with those lovesick puppy eyes at Dodo-kun!"

'Dodo' seized up in fear. "W-wait, w-w-what?" he yelped, jumping far away from Yuuji. "Don't involve me in your love squabbles!"

"No!" Yuuji protested, "Y-you're wrong! I love you, and only you! It's you who's cheating on me!" he yelled, furious. "I saw you eyeing Kamio-kun with hearts in your eyes two weeks ago! Right before that you were in love with Tezuka-kun and Atobe-kun!" (everyones' jaw dropped at that)

"You know what, Yui-kun!" Koharu snapped, "I don't want to love you anymore, it's a waste of my precious love! I prefer someone noble and beautiful like…" he hesitated, looking around the clearing for a new love. But unfortunately for him, most people had already decided not to take any chances and had hidden behind a tree or under a table. He looked around some more. "S-someone like…" A heart shaped light bulb appeared over his head. "Oh! I know who I love!"

Everyone flinched, and cowered even closer to their hiding places. _What the hell is wrong with this guy? _they thought, cursing. _It'd better not be me he chooses! I'll die!_

Koharu blushed, clutching his hands together. "I love…" he whispered.

Yuuji's jaw dropped. "So…n-no way! You're cheating on me? For real? But why!" he whined, beginning to regret his choice of words.

"I love…."

"N-no, K-Koharu! I even came all the way to this camp just to reunite with you! Can't we talk this out? Please?" Yuuji begged, getting on his knees with a fresh flower.

_Yes, please talk it out!_ everyone thought, agitated. _Someone stop this lunatic!_

"I love….I love….."

"_JUST GET ON WITH IT!"_ the middle schoolers yelled, leaping out of their hiding places in fury.

"MY LOVER OF DESTINY SHALL BE RYOMA-KUN!" he declared triumphantly, fist pumping the air.

"_NANI?"_

"_E-ECHIZEN?"_

"ECHIZEN, RUN!"

"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, ECHIZEN-KUN!_ SAVE YOURSELF!"_

Ryoma, who hadn't cared enough about the situation before to hide, looked like he was now regretting it. His face darkened dangerously as an oblivious Koharu wrapped his arms around his new 'lover of destiny' like a present while cooing in a girly voice that they were fated to be together.

"…Excuse me, Koharu-san." he started in a low voice. "I don't think I can accept this."

Koharu's eyes widened in shock and horror. "W-why? W-we'll be perfect together, I'm sure! Your perfect balance of emerald locks of silky hair and soft skin, your gorgeous tennis strokes and hazelnut gold eyes, it's so…so…perfect! " he gushed longingly. " You're the object of my perfection! My sunshine, my moonlight, my daylight, my-"

Ryoma gently pushed Koharu away, face still dark. **"Get lost. Find another lover, you weird gay guy."** he growled, his annoyance making him slip into his English roots. Koharu collapsed onto the ground and burst into tears, leaving the middle schoolers in a very awkward situation. Most just turned away and went to tend to the potatoes. No one wanted to deal with the 'weird gay guy'.

All of a sudden though, Koharu leaped back up and sprang over to Ryoma joyfully. "I know!" he cried happily, clasping his hand together. "I know what will make you accept this!"

Ryoma's eyes narrowed slightly, and he tensed up. "…And what might that be?"

"More people!" Koharu exclaimed gleefully. "We'll have Sanada-kun and Dodo-kun too! And later on, we can have Kamio-kun too! I just know we can find a bed big enough for all of us! You know, the more the merrier!"

"_NANI! A HAREM?" _everyone yelled, dropping what they were holding in their shock. They were now _very_ convinced to stay far away from Koharu, or at least when he was in heat (which was really always).

Sanada and Momo had turned chalky white by now, freezing in their places. They both gulped and tried to pretend that nothing had happened. Sanada shakily flipped a pancake, trying to stay tough, while Momo quickly scuttled to the river to wash an already clean utensil.

Koharu sighed dramatically, putting a hand to his heart. "You know, Sanada-kun, if it's a hard choice for you…I understand. It's hard to accept a new lover right away, but…I know what will make it better for you…I know what will soothe your aching heart."

Sanada gripped his pan tightly, not facing Koharu. "….Yes?"

"Yukimura-kun can join our harem too, if you insist so much on having him!"

* * *

_"Ittadakimasu!"_

Ryoma sighed, watching the middle schoolers dig in to their food like they hadn't eaten in months. He nibbled slowly on his own pancake, watching the scene that was still going on between Sanada and Koharu. After Koharu had made his announcement, Sanada's Black Aura had gone into full gear, and things weren't that pretty for him afterwards. Ryoma looked at the ropes that were tightly binding Koharu upside down in a tree. _I must admit, I'm pretty good at tying people up…_he thought to himself approvingly, making a mental note to test out some other knots on Koharu later…if he was even alive by then.

"Koharu!" Yuuji wailed, trying to reach his ex's cold heart. "I'm sorry! I love you! Please, let's just kiss and make up! Face it, this harem will not work! They just don't make beds that big anymore!"

"No!" Koharu yelled. "I only love Sanada-kun and Ryoma-kun now! Sanada-kun's noble strength, fearless determination, and brilliant courage are all perfect! He fills up my love meter to the maximum!" he raved, looking at Sanada blissfully. Sanada, however, didn't seem to feel the same way. Ryoma couldn't help but feel bad, as Koharu probably wouldn't live to see the next minute, let alone the next day. He could practically feel the waves of the Black Aura from where he was sitting, at least 50 meters away.

He yawned, and tugged Momo's sleeve gently. "Ne, Momo-senpai, that's your seventh pancake. Save some for the high schoolers…"

"Youff gota be kwiddin!" he replied, mouth full of potato. "Thos gies arenn't wowrth the consisderasihn!"

"Guess so."

They left the remaining pancakes on the table for the high schoolers to fight over, and went back to their cave home to await further instructions from Coach Nyudo. What they found was Coach Nyudo and a huge, huge, eagle on his arm.

Kintaro's jaw dropped in amazement. "W-Wha…Look at that eagle! It's huge!" he cried, extremely impressed, jumping forward to examine the eagle some more. The eagle snapped it's huge, sharp beak at Kintaro in return and screeched, not appreciating the celebrity treatment.

"WAAH!" Kintaro shot back from the eagle, and dove behind a tree. "W-what a meanie…" he whimpered, grasping his hand tenderly.

"What's going on?" Kenya asked, earning a smirk from Coach Nyudo. "I mean…uh…." he stammered, not liking where the conversation was going.

"I'm in a good mood and the eagles are feeling good, so I'm going to host the Sportsman Hunt now."

"Sportsman Hunt?" the middle schoolers exclaimed.

"B-but…what's with the eagles?" Tanishi asked curiously, eyeing them caustiously. "When you say _hunt_...you don't mean..."

Coach Nyudo gently petted the eagle lovingly. "They're going to be hunting you trash." Seeing the look of horror on the middle schoolers' faces, he snickered and continued. "It's better than humans hunting you, right? Anyways, I'll quickly tell you the rules then you can run away." he cleared his throat and took a drink from his gourd before continuing.

_R-Run away?_ They all thought, sweat-dropping. _We'll have to run away from eagles…oh god, curse those damned winners..._

"So…first of all, I'm going to give all of you – that includes the high schoolers, once they finish their breakfast – a scented balloon. These balloons have a scent on them that the eagles love, so they'll be chasing after you like a cat chasing a mouse. Your task is to simply avoid having your balloon popped by the eagles...or other people. If it hasn't been popped by sundown, you'll receive a prize. However…if it _is_ popped…." he pointed to a huge pile of loincloths behind him. "You'll get the honor of washing every single one of my loincloths!" he burst out laughing evilly, flames of passion exploding behind him. "If I find a single stain on them afterwards, you'll get 100000 swings to do as a punishment!" he roared. "Now, _GO!"_

_Owari_

**Geez, this wasn't a chapter I was planning on doing, with the Koharu stuff. Did I exaggerate with Koharu? But really, he's got a serious thing for guys XD. I honestly think he likes Kamio the most, but he wasn't in the losing group. Besides, it **_**is**_** a Ryoma fanfic so I liked seeing Koharu express his love for him XD. In the beginning of NPOT, Koharu did say he thought Ryoma was cute! I was actually planning on doing the Sportsman hunt this chapter…or at least have a bit of it in here. Anyways, next chapter the Sportsman hunt is starting. It's almost completely from Ryoma's point of view, with a little bit of Sanada and a high schooler near the beginning.**

*** Potato pancakes are made by grating potatoes (after peeling them, of course) and taking the grated sludge and putting in on a frying pan. That's all, they really only need potatoes. Soysauce on the side is good too. They're delicious!**

**I got the Tezuka-kun and Atobe-kun thing from pairpuri 1 XD love the pairpuris.**

Next chapter preview:

_Crap! Above me?_ Ryoma sprang out of his hiding place, hitting the pinecones into the nearest tree with dangerous accuracy. A dark shape fell out of it and into a bush, letting out a cry of shock as he did. Ryoma's eyes widened as he recognized that cry all too well.

"You…"

**But you know, my previews aren't that accurate XP so it could change a bit. But that's the main idea of one of the scenes. And I haven't really started the chapter, so that's the shortest preview ever…one sentence...*face palm* Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading!**


	6. The Sportsman Hunt

**This is chapter 6 of RTT, the first part of the Sportsman Hunt. First of all, I consider eagles to screech, ok? **_**–SCREEECCH!**_** Is eagle noise, not car crashing or anything destructive like that.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own prince of tennis!**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy! **

**Ok, since I'm no good with format, here's some stuff…**

_**-SCREEECH!**_** : eagle noise, and means there's an eagle around.**

**- : separate flashback from the one before it, so they're not connected.**

_**Flashback**_** : Long flashback**

Chapter 6 : In and Out

_Previously:_

"_So…first of all, I'm going to give all of you – that includes the high schoolers, once they finish their breakfast – a scented balloon. Actually, you'll be going to the supply shed to get them, I didn't want to rouse the eagles up while I was holding them. These balloons have a scent on them that the eagles love, so they'll be chasing after you like a cat chasing a mouse. Your task is to simply avoid having your balloon popped by the eagles – or other people. If it hasn't been popped by sundown, you'll receive a prize." _

_"However…if it _is_ popped…." he pointed to a looming pile of loincloths behind him. "You'll get the honor of washing every single one of my loincloths!" He burst out cackling evilly, flames of passion exploding behind him. "If I find a single stain on them afterwards, you'll get 100000 swings to do as a punishment!" he roared. "Now, GO!"_

Present:

"..."

The middle schoolers just simply stood there, blinking at each other. Yet again, they were swept in and out of a moment way too quickly – they just couldn't take in all the info at once. Coach Nyudo stared at them, raising his eyebrows in exasperation at the slow group.

"What the hell is wrong with you trash?" he grumbled, tossing his empty gourd aside. "You're so sluggish today! I know you trash are always crappy, but today you're more crappy than usual! Put some energy into it! I even gave you more rest, so you should not only be extremely grateful but also enthusiastic! Not slouching around like a bunch of sloths. Do you want the eagles to pop the balloons? Or are you just overjoyed at the thought of washing my loincloths?"

An exhausted Yuuta clenched his fists in annoyance. "Hey, then let's go already! Who knows when that eagle's gonna get released! I don't know about you, but that eagle seems a little hungry to me…and I don't know if he likes the taste of middle schoolers, but I once heard from my brother when I was little that a starved eagle will eat _anything._"

"…and you actually believed him?" Kai asked skeptically, learning exactly why Fuji was always saying that Yuuta was fun to play with because he was "gullible in a cute and lovely way".

Even though they knew (thought) the eagles wouldn't have them as an appetizer, the middle schoolers still knew that they had talons that dug, and they dug deep. They rapidly charged out of the clearing in an unorderly fashion, and were either pushing past each other or jumping over someone, with the occasional brain deciding to avoid the risk of getting run over and to use the trees as transport. They raced towards the shed, which required some uneven running down the rocky mountain, and each of them then grabbed a red balloon from inside and hurriedly tied the thin thread around their waist, barely stopping to take a breath.

Zaizen sniffed his balloon curiously and gave it a little shake, frowning. "These don't really smell like anything…" he remarked, giving it another smell. "Maybe the coach lied?"

"I doubt it," Ryoma replied, shaking his head firmly. "When that coach says something, he means it. Besides, most animals have a better sense of smell than humans." He then looked around at the group and grimaced, noticing something that would become a problem for them later on.

"If these balloons really do have a scent, we can't stay together in a group like this. All the smells will lead the eagles here and we're not good at running away in a big group, especially when we're panicking. That run down the mountain proved it, I'm surprised we didn't knock each other out. We should separate and head for different parts of the mountain. That way, we'll have a better chance of evading…well no, not evading but more _avoiding_ the eagles." he finished, slightly weary. He wasn't used to talking so much, and his talk meter had already been rapidly filling up since the incident at breakfast, thanks to Koharu and Momo.

Kenya nodded in agreement and pointed towards the top of the mountain, where five eagles seemed to be gathered. "Echizen's right, we've gotta separate. Look over there, the eagles are already gathering. I think it'd be stupid to try and out run them, but I think we can at least hide from them. It's probably best if we could somehow find a hiding spot underneath something so that the eagles can't reach us, like a cave perhaps. I don't think Coach Nyudo starved them long enough for them to...be desperate."

"Where's your proof, Kenya-san?" Zaizen said. "I think eagles are always hungry."

"You're not helping!" Kenya hissed.

Sanada sighed, examining the vast miles of unfamiliar terrain around him. "This is going to be hard. Try not to get hurt or lost, because you'll be hard to find if you're unable to return…" At that, everyone gulped and glanced at each other worriedly. Although not many people would admit it, they all cared for each other's well-being since becoming closer during the training.

"Well…" Momo piped uneasily, trying to relieve the tense atmosphere. "It's actually not that hard to find the way back…" he winked at them and chuckled. "Just listen for the screams…or I guess, the screeches as well."

Kaido rolled his eyes and huffed at his rival. "Very funny, as expected of a momoshiri like you." he muttered, peeved. "Let's stop wasting time and get out of here!"

"Yosh!" Everyone quickly took a moment to exchange words of encouragement and fist bumps before scattering, most of them going in groups of 2, 3, 4 or 5. Ryoma paired up with Momo and was about to set off for the bottom of the mountain when they noticed someone curled up on the ground in a little blue cloud of depression and sadness.

Momo blinked at the depressed figure, wincing. "Koharu-san, are you trying to get killed?" he groaned, trying to pull him up. Behind him, Ryoma gave slight shake of his head, and signaled for Momo to leave the rejected alone.

"Wha-" Zaizen then popped up out of nowhere and grabbed Momo's wrist before he could say anything else, dragging him out of the clearing and leaving the downcast Koharu who had had all of his dreams crushed behind.

"Just ignore him." Zaizen said, once they were out of earshot. "My sempais are idiots, but they'll figure something out. They always do."

"Yeah," Ryoma started, looking back at Koharu. "I saw Yuuji-san heading back to him with that determined love expression on his face. Yuuji-san's the only one who can help him right now…because really, he's the only one who would ever accept Koharu-san's love. Or did _you_ want to, 'Dodo-kun?'" he asked, smirking at his flustered friend.

"A-absolutely not!" Momo yelled, cringing at the thought. "That guy wanted a harem here! Total freak!"

"That's what I thought too." Zaizen replied, chuckling. "I'm heading over to the cooking shed since it looks like no one's going there. I'll see you two around! Good luck." he turned back and began to sprint down the mountain to the cooking shed, probably to get into the cover of its shed_. _

_Then again, that really is a good idea…_ Ryoma thought, realizing that if he were inside a room of some sort, the eagles probably wouldn't try and get in. Probably.

Running beside him, Momo was still ranting about Koharu in disgust. "If it weren't for his data, I would question him being on Shitenhoji's team….but then again, a lot of them are kinda weird, with Kintaro, Yuuji-san, Gin-san…Shiraishi-san too, I don't really get his 'ecstasy' thing. I think Zaizen and Kenya are the only normal people on that team. But then again, you told me that Kenya-san can run on water...is he Jesus Christ or what?"

"Hm…..And we don't have weirdos on our team? We're the ones with the mega mountain eater - don't deny it, bear-hugging cat-like acrobat, freaky tensai, double-personality sushi chef, snake, data android, mother hen, and poker face captain who has a weird passion for German sausages."

"Ugh, no!" Momo groaned, remembering a phone call they had once gotten from Tezuka when he was in Germany. "That was nuts. I swear Tezuka-buchou called all the teams saying that just so he could sabotage them and make them not practice. I never would have thought that someone like Tezuka-buchou had such a cunning side. Maybe that's why we won." he finished, laughing at the sudden thought. "We should so try that next year!"

Not saying anything, Ryoma looked away for a moment, then tripped over something on the ground with his lack of attention. He yelped as his feet slid out uncontrollably from under him, and went sprawling onto the ground, landing on the rough path heavily. He lay there and winced, grasping his scrapped knee and feeling warm blood seep through his fingers. "Just great…" he muttered, gingerly standing up.

"Echizen!" Momo rushed over to him and put an arm on Ryoma's shoulder anxiously. "You ok? Geez, pay attention!" he scolded, a trace of worry on his face. "Great, you're bleeding! Sanada-san warned us not to get hurt, you idiot! Can you walk?"

"G-gomen…But you did start the conversation, you know. I'm perfectly fine, it doesn't hurt at all. What did I even trip over?"

_SCREEEEEECH!_

"NGH!" Momo yelped. "An eagle! Crap, we chatted for too long!" He glanced at Ryoma tensely, who, although he would never admit it, was having a bit of trouble with his knee. "Echizen, run for the cooking shed and join Hikaru-san or something. I'm going the other way! I'll lead him off, so stay here first!" With that, Momo set off sprinting, making loud "Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!" noises at the bristling eagle.

Ryoma's eyes widened and he watched in shock and dismay as the eagle changed course and chased after the panicking Momo, as it seemed to find it more fun to chase a moving target. It also seemed a little annoyed, if possible (actually, it seemed to even have steam coming from its ears)

"…Momo-sempai…"

_-thunk! bonk!_

"Itai!"

Ryoma flinched as a prickly brown ball landed on his head, before plopping onto the grass with an innocent 'thud'. He picked it up curiously, holding it carefully in his hands. It wasn't as spiky as it looked, but the little prickleball still had extreme scratching power. "What the hell is this…?" he questioned out loud. "Some spiky brown sea urchin? Ah, wait no, isn't it a-"

_-rustle!_

Ryoma spun around instantly, leaping away from a maple tree near him as a silent rustle reached his ears. _Above me?_ He launched one of the spikies into the tree, smirking in satisfaction as his hunter toppled out of the tree, crying out as he landed head first into a bush. Ryoma paused and blinked in surprise, as he knew that cry all too well.

"Toyama!" he exclaimed, putting a hand to his head. "Should have known…"

Kintaro rolled out of the bush painfully, shaking some dried leaves off him. "K-Koshimae…" he whimpered, looking at him with reproachful puppy dog eyes. "Y-y-your aim is deadly accurate…and with one of those pinecones too!"

"Pinecones? They're not pinecones. The pinecones in my backyard don't look like that."

"I heard you saying something about them looking like a brown sea urchin. Oooh, than it must be a _land_ urchin!" Kintaro thumped his fist against his palm in approval, liking the unusual name.

"…You know what, I forgot, they look like chestnuts. I haven't seen one in so long, so I've forgotten the fact that they're spiky."

"_Chestnuts?_ Chestnuts aren't like that, they're smooth and silky! I know because I love eating chestnuts!" Kintaro protested, frowning in disbelief at the chestnut with the identity crisis.

"Smooth and silky? You must be talking about another species of chestnuts, the one that you find in a zipped pouch at something you call a grocery store." Ryoma retorted, stuffing two chestnuts into his pocket. "Then I'm leaving." He turned and began to go down the path when he noticed that Kintaro was following him expectantly.

"Why are you following me?" Ryoma asked the redhead, already knowing the answer.

Kintaro grinned widely. "Why not? Doesn't it make you feel better to have someone with you? Besides, I can help you out! Your knee's bleeding Koshimae..."

"….I'm perfectly fine, Toyama, it's just a scrape. If you're with me, it'll make it easier for the eagles to find me." Ryoma muttered back, pouting_._

_SCREEEEECH!_

"_I told you!"_

"_UWAAAAAAHH!"_

* * *

_At a stream somewhere on the mountain:_

"Agh…" Momo moaned, panting. He put his hands on his knees in an attempt to regain his long lost energy and sat down in the stream, leaning against a slippery rock. "Oi, is everyone still alive?"

Beside him, his new found group of Kai, Shishido, Taka, Jackal and Niou nodded back at him solemnly. After Momo ran away from the eagle, he had found a mini cave that the eagles couldn't reach, where Kai, Shishido and Niou were. They had gotten the idea of washing their balloons off, so they had taken the risk of running down to a stream to do so. Unfortunately for them, they ran into Taka and Jackal, who were in the process of evading yet another eagle. Since they were such good supportive friends, they were forced to run away from the eagle all together, forming a new group of six.

Niou perched onto a rock above Momo, and let the steady trickle of water run over his legs. He sighed in relief at the coolness and lay down with his head resting on hands, catching his breath. "Pupina…"

"Oi," Ryo muttered, flicking water at the trickster. "Don't you have anything better to say than 'pupina'? It's super lame…not even encouraging at all. I think I know why that Hiroshi guy was biting your butt off after your elimination match."

Niou pondered on that thought. "You know, there was once a poll we held on which asked, 'Which saying of the middle schoolers would you want to say the most', and stuff like that." he remarked, sitting back up. "I think Echizen's 'Mada mada dane' got 'The saying that I don't want people saying to me the most', and Sanada's 'Tarundoru!' got 'The saying I want to try saying the most'. 'Pupina' got 'The saying that I _never _want to say the most.'….what does that mean?"

"…what do you think it means?" Jackal retorted, thinking of the variations of Pupina he had learned from Niou over the long years he had known him. It hadn't exactly improved the aspects of his life much.

"It means your saying's super lame, dimwit." Ryo repeated, rolling his eyes. "Be grateful we're being honest and saying that your saying's stupid. Your teammates would probably be too polite to say it outright to your face."

"…No, you should have heard what Yukimura once said about it…" Jackal said, sweat dropping at the little "talk" Yukimura had once given when he first heard the word Pupina. "I'm surprised Niou still used it after all that."

"It strengthened my need to say Pupina."

"Yeah right."

Meanwhile, Momo was pacing back and forth, shooting constant wary looks at the sky. Kai stuck out his leg to trip him, annoyed. "Hey Momo, stop pacing, it's getting on my nerves. We washed off our balloons, along with ourselves while I'm on the subject, so the eagles shouldn't be coming here anytime soon. Let's just relax."

"Kuh…I can't believe this!" Everyone turned to look at Ryo. "While those stupid _stupid_ winners are having the time of their lives, eating luxurious food and sleeping in actual beds, we're stuck in hell running away from eagles! _Eagles_, for heavens' sake! Do you know how stupid we must look?" Ryo yelled, trying his hardest not to break out in a fury of swearing. He sighed and broke of a branch, testing its strength. "I think this is good enough…" he muttered, sharpening it against the trunk angrily.

Momo eyed the stick warily, and took a few steps back from the fuming Hyotei starter. "S-Shishido-san, what's that for? C-calm down a bit!"

"I'm going to find those damned eagles, and teach them a lesson!" With that, he turned and stormed out in search of his new prey. "I won't let them beat me! I'm going to get revenge for all that hiding and running!" he snapped.

"..."

"….Uh…I thought the eagles were supposed to be hunting us, not the other way around…"

"Shishido-kun's gone berserk…I can't blame him though, wouldn't it be funny for someone watching us running away from eagles with a balloon tied to our waist from a TV screen?" Taka asked. "Ha ha, we would look hilarious, right? Thank god that's never happening."

"Pupina…anyawys, are we joining him to attack the eagles, or staying here, where it's nice, cool and safe?"

"_STAYING HERE."_

* * *

Meanwhile, the two super rookies were about to start a fight of their own.

_Flashback:_

_SCCREEEECHHH!_

"_I told you!"_

_-"UUWAAAAAH!" _

"_Che!" Ryoma quickly sprung into action as the eagle slowly circled them. He grabbed a chestnut and whacked it, aiming right at the eagle's mouth. _I've got you now…

-Bam!_ It was really too bad for Ryoma, as the full force of his hit was greatly diminished by another chestnut that had flew into his. "Toyama! Stop getting in my way!" Ryoma yelled, glaring at Kintaro._

"_It's not me getting in your way, it's you getting in mine!" Kintaro yelled back, just as irritated._

"_Hunh?"_

"_Nani!"_

"…_.." By this time, the eagle had gotten bored of the two, and decided to simply fly away. Besides, the eagle could tell that he wouldn't be able to get their balloons anyway. They were too energetic. Ryoma and Kintaro halted their argument and blinked in surprise as the eagle flew away in disgust. They could almost hear it sighing at them. They turned away guiltily, and shrugged at each other in a somewhat apology._

"_Instead of this," Ryoma started, "Let's just decide things the easy way."_

_Kintaro grinned back, a spark in his eyes. "Alright Koshimae…I've been waiting for this."_

_Flashback end_

"Ai ai ai, what are those middle schoolers doing?" Kabuto leaned against a tree, watching the scene with Yugito and Akana. They were watching the match from the shade of some trees that surrounded half of the clearing with the makeshift court. A few more high schoolers were also there, along with some middle schoolers, which included Sanada, Zaizen and Tanishi. "They're out in the open and now there's even a crowd watching them! We're practically acting as a dinner plate for those eagles!"

On the court, Ryoma rolled his eyes at the overly loud high schooler. "Don't watch then. No one asked you to. Stop trumpeting in my ears, you're ruining my concentration."

"…Y-you….unfriendly…" Kabuto grumbled, tick throbbing.

"Pay attention to me, Koshimae~!" Kintaro sang, grabbing two chestnuts and hitting them at the same time. "It won't be fun without a challenge like this, right?"

"Two people can play that game!" Ryoma replied, grinning as he scooped up another chestnut and hit it back with the other two easily.

"Wow, would you look at that. They're hitting three chestnuts at the same time." Yugito remarked, poking a bored Akana in the ribs. "Why aren't you watching, poopy-doo? Not interesting enough?"

"Oni and Tokugawa can hit _ten_ and that other guy can hit even-"

"UWAAAAH!" They stopped and watched in amusement as a screaming Kintaro was carried away by an eagle, squawking in displeasure as it struggled it keep hold of its squirming prize.

"Be happy, Akana!" Kabuto protested, laughing as the eagle dropped the flailing redhead into a tree none too gently. "At least you're not that poor kid. Ah, look, the other four eagles are here...god, I knew this would happen."

Ryoma gritted his teeth in frustration as the eagle returned with its friends and were now surrounding him in the air. For some reason, the eagles had decided that they were tired of chasing rabbits, and had simply decided that surrounding one of them would be a sure win. And by the way it was looking, Ryoma could tell they were right.

"…I see that, you seem to know a little bit about eagle handling so give me a hand here." He muttered to Kabuto, gripping his racket tightly. On his way to the camp a few weeks ago, he had had many ideas on what the U-17 camp was going to be like. Avoiding five eagles who wanted to eat him/his balloon at the same time had never been on the list.

"I'm in no mood to become bird-feed."

"Sure, sure, keep your hat on." Kabuto said teasingly, before tossing four chestnuts over to his friends. Soon enough, five chestnuts immediately whizzed towards him. "Use those!" he yelled as the eagles began to dive and advance on Ryoma. "Hurry!"

As he went into position to try and execute the move he had been trying to do for so long, Ryoma suddenly froze. He just simply froze.

His eyes widened as all five chestnuts hurtled towards him, becoming nothing but a brown blur in his mind. For one dreadful moment he thought that it might be the yips, perhaps from his loss against Tokugawa. He felt his head spin dangerously and he took a step back, clutching his head as it began to pound painfully, waves echoing through his muddled mind. He could hear the faint cries of his teammates yelling out to him, telling him to watch out, asking him what was wrong.

He winced as he was sure he could hear the eagles swooping down on him mercilessly, and he was completely incapable of protecting himself, much less that blown up piece of plastic.

_Flashback:_

"_You can't beat him without those skills, you know that! You need to try harder! Your standards are far too low to be on this team, -!"_

_._

"_I challenged a guy on Ichiban court.…and lost."_

_._

"_Try to think as if you're splitting your mind into different sections, and focus on different things at the same time…it's hard, but that's how you hit-"_

_._

"_You know, if it doesn't work, try, try again. Get up one more time than the number of times you fall."_

_._

"_I can't believe you would ever do something like this, you bastard! I'll never, ever, ever forgive you for this!"_

"ECHIZEN, WATCH OUT!"

_-Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!_

Panting, Ryoma remained still, watching silently as the five chestnuts he hit rammed into every single one of their targets and went spiraling away in the breeze. The eagles screeched one last time before they turned on their heels and fled, their wings beating steadily in the calm wind. He was still grasping his head, in which the pain had begun to fade from the horrible pounding to a dull throb.

"Did I…." he couldn't finish what he was saying, as he was far too confused and dazed by what had just happened. He tried to think about the flashes that had just gone through his mind, but he couldn't quite link them to any of his past experiences at all. _Um...ok. I don't really know what just happened, but I guess I'll take it._

"Echizen, you ok?" Kintaro rushed up to him frantically, joined by the others. "I really – wait, NO! – Koshimae!" he wailed, noticing his mistake a moment too late. "Uh, Koshimae, are you ok? I was so worried, what happened to you? Were you possessed? Maybe…Oh! I read about something like this in a manga, a vampire-"

"Uhh…no, I don't…think so. My head just hurt a bit, that's all."

Kenya frowned, taking a look at Ryoma's head. "Maybe your head hasn't quite recovered after that fall from the mission yet. Why don't you ask for some more ice from Coach Nyudo? Or if you want, I can steal some for you."

"Thanks Kenya-san, but I'm fine. I'm better off than those eagles, at least."

"Speaking of the eagles…" Inui began, having just reached the court. "It would seem that they're not coming back anytime soon."

"So then…the Sportsman Hunt's over, isn't it." Ryoma remarked dryly.

"….That's sudden. So it's just over, just like that? This was supposed to go on for another six hours, are you kidding me?"

"We'll need to ask Coach Nyudo about this…"

"Yeah…"

_Owari_

**Thank you for reading, I really appreciate it! I don't know if you enjoyed it or not, but I hope you did :) Next chapter describes the end of the Sportsman Hunt in more detail.**

Omake : Tezuka and the German Sausuges

_During the Kanto Tournament:_

"Alright everyone, take a 10 minute break! Practice matches will start right after!" Oishi announced, calling the tennis team who were currently running laps. It was right before the match against Rikkaidai and they needed all the training they could get. "Remember, right now Tezuka's doing his best in Germany, so we need to do our best too!"

"Unh!" The team chorused, then they went off to separate places to take a breather. Momo and Ryoma both headed for a patch of shade next to the courts and plopped down onto it, sighing. They stayed silent for a few minutes, watching the birds glide lazily in the sky, letting out a squawk of randomness every once in a while.

"You know…" Ryoma started, still looking up at the sky. "I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if Tezuka-buchou were here…it sometimes feels so weird not having his presence here. I mean, Oishi-fukubuchou is substituting really well, but…"

"It's just not the same." Momo finished for him, smiling ruefully. "I know what you mean. But you know, Tezuka-buchou's still fighting with us! He's working his hardest to-"

_Ring ring ring!_

"Ah, my phone's ringing…" Ryoma muttered absentmindly, ignoring Momo's remark on how he had such a simple ringtone. It seemed he didn't know that not everyone appreciated heavy metal ringtones like him. He balanced the phone on his shoulder, and raised it to his ear. "Hai?"

"Ah, Echizen, you finally answered." It was Tezuka, who had been trying to get through to Ryoma for the last 20 minutes. "I was beginning to get worried, you weren't answering your phone…"

"Buchou!" Ryoma said with a small smile, while struggling to push an excited Momo back outside his personal bubble. "I'm in the middle of practice." he explained, surprised that Tezuka hadn't known that. He quickly put the phone on speaker mode to get Momo to stop pushing him.

"Oh yes, practice, I forgot. Well, I just had to call…Have you heard of 'Marjon's?'"

Ryoma blinked, confused by the question. "Marjon's? No, does it have anything to do with tennis?" _But how would I not know about it then…doubles? _he wondered, even more confused. _Does buchou think I'm that bad at doubles?_

Sitting at a cafe in Germany, Tezuka chuckled warmly. "No no, it's a company that makes German sausages. They're really quite amazing, and they're quite generous too. They've decided to teach me the art of sausage making! I managed to make some really tasty ones last week! I would have loved to bring some back as a souvenir, but they are specially made with no preservatives! I'll make some for you once I come back. I must go now, so I'll talk to you soon. I would have liked to talk to you some more, Echizen, but you weren't answering, so I called all of the other teams and sent them voicemails to tell them about those amazing sausages and some other stuff, like that amazing band, t.A.T.U. Are they popular in Japan? I would love to go to their concert! Anyways, I do hope you're doing well. Good luck in Kanto!"

_-Click!_

"..."

"Uh…yeah…continue what you were saying, Momo-sempai…something about working his hardest to…"

"…I'm….going to pretend that wasn't Tezuka-buchou, ok?"

"Do you want to tell the others about this? I recorded the call."

"…No, everyone'll lose their motivation. I already lost mine. Dang."

_Over at Hyotei's tennis courts:_

"C'mon, keep going! Do 20 laps after the sit-ups! Seigaku's probably training just as hard, if not harder! I won't allow Hyotei to lose twice!" Atobe yelled, running laps himself.

"A-Atobe, we've been at it for six hours, lay off a bit! You're killing us here!" Ryo complained, panting.

"He's not listening Shishido-san, he's on the phone right now…don't complain, you know Seigaku's working really hard because of the absence of Tezuka-san…not to mention, Tezuka-san must be working really hard too!" Chotaro said encouragingly. "Just think, this'll help us defeat Seigaku and the other teams!"

Over on the other side of the courts, Atobe flipped his cell phone shut, face hidden behind a shadow. He was still trying to digest what Tezuka had just told him about German sausages in his mind...and the fact that Tezuka had just sent him a voicemail and called him "Atobe-kun".

Chotaro and the rest of his team ran over to Atobe tiredly. "Buchou, we're done the laps. What now? Should we try and create a new-"

"...Practice for the whole week's cancelled. Go home."

_"EH?"_

**Yeah, so that's the Omake...Tezuka really did call some teams about his experience in Germany! It's from a Rajipuri, it's the inspiration for this Omake. It didn't go exactly like this, as Tezuka didn't call Seigaku so Ryoma didn't have to lose his motivation XD he actually called Tomo instead, and he called her about a football player he met. For anyone who hasn't watched it, it's on yt, so watch it XD it is so funny, but it's so not like Tezuka at all! I couldn't stop laughing! Go Tezuka!**


	7. Aftermath

**Hi! This is chapter 7 of RTT (wait, everyone already knows that…whatever XP) titled Aftermath. This is a bit of a random chapter that kinda wraps up the Sportsman Hunt and sets up the plot for the next chapter. It's like a transition chapter, if that makes sense. By the way, I'm saying this beforehand, Ryoma doesn't have a concussion, so yeah. He did hit his head twice in this fanfic though, I should stop doing that. Nonetheless, he was never really hurt when Kabuto whammed the door in his face XD.**

**Please review! They're greatly appreciated! :D and I hope you enjoy~!  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Prince of Tennis in any way!**

Chapter 7: Aftermath

_Previously:_

"_Speaking of the eagles…" Inui began, having just reached the court. "It would seem that they're not coming back anytime soon."_

"_So then…the Sportsman Hunt's over, isn't it." Ryoma remarked dryly._

"…_.That's sudden. So it's just over, just like that? This was supposed to go on for another six hours, are you kidding me?"_

"_We'll need to ask Coach Nyudo about this…"_

"_Yeah…"_

A crease of worry appeared on Oishi's forehead as he glanced over at Ryoma. "But while we're waiting, Echizen, I want to check your head to make sure you don't have a severe concussion or anything like that…I mean, you were acting a bit off and all, and…"

_A bit off?_ Ryoma thought with a sigh, wanting to change the subject_. I probably looked like I was possessed by a zombie!_

Inui began flipping furiously through his notebook, glasses gleaming with mischief. "A concussion is the most common type of traumatic brain injury, with the most common causes being sport injuries, car accidents and falls. Concussions are a result of an impact to the head that causes the brain to bang against the skull. The forces involved disrupt cellular processes in the brain for days or weeks, depending on the situation and severity of the concussion."

"Inui-sempai, no one asked for a lesson. We're not in school."

"Ahem." The data troublemaker continued, "Most symptoms of a severe concussion don't occur until a few days after the accident. Echizen, did you hit your head a few days ago?"

"Uh…yeah, but it wasn't-"

"Symptoms included within a severe concussion include dizziness, imbalance, loss of vision, confusion-"

"E-Echizen, you were probably having symptoms of a severe concussion!" Momo said worriedly.

"Crap, go to sleep!"

"No, if you go to sleep when you're having a concussion you'll die you idiot!"

"That's not true you carrothead! Go read a health guide or something!"

Momo went up and anxiously felt Ryoma's head for a bump. "You were dizzy right? And you had a lack of attention, and your head obviously hurt by the way you were clutching it! Did you see black spots in your vision or anything?" he questioned frantically, surrounded by some of the other middle schoolers. By now, the high schoolers along with a handful of the middle schoolers like Zaizen and Sanada had quietly stepped back and were watching the show in amusement, not wanting to get involved.

"No, relax." Ryoma replied, irritated, not wanting to tell Momo that he had in fact seen black spots. He didn't want them to become even more frantic, as it was already hectic enough. "Inui-sempai, you started this so say something!" he snapped, glaring murderously at the man who was currently writing in his notebook at a top speed of 150 WPM and was gushing about the amazing data he was getting from the gullible middle schoolers.

"Then," Inui continued, smiling. "If you want me to put it simply so everyone can understand, Echizen went through a period where he couldn't think straight, and was both dizzy and disorientated, which are some of the symptoms of a severe concussion. If the concussion is severe enough and isn't recognized and treated on time, it can compromise vital functions of the brain and can lead to conditions such as amnesia, seizures, and a potentially fatal swelling of the brain, which of course, can lead to death."

"_EHHHH? D-DEATH?"_

"_EH?_ I-Inui-sempai you jerk, I said not to-"

"Echizen, lie down right now and close your eyes! Breathe in and out slowly! Make sure enough blood circulates to your head! I've trained for situations like these!"

"What? Dedicated."

"Echizen, don't worry you'll be fine! I won't let you die!"

"M-Momo-sempai, thanks, but I don't even have a con-"

"Echizen, what kind of coffin do you want? Gold or silver? I think Egyptian style would be cool too, or you could even have it wrapped in Chinese silk if you want."

"Huh?"

"Hey! What kind of horrible jokes are you making, scumbag!"

"Yeah, you bastard! Go to hell!"

"Pupina…It was just a joke…"

"Don't joke around in these situations, Niou! Echizen could really be in grave danger! Concussions are serious!"

"Ii data…"

"For god sake, calm down, I'm feeling perfectly fi-"

"NOOOOO! Koshimae, don't die! I read about this in a man-"

"You read too much, Toyama! I don't know why no one has told you this, but mangas are usually _fiction!_ Besides, I don't think yelling at someone who could have a concussion will make things any better!"

"GAH! NO! Don't tell Kin-chan mangas are fiction! Shiraishi told us not too!"

"EEHHH? So you actually have a concussion! That's not good, you might di-"

_"NO!"_

The high schoolers were still backed away from the hoard of panicking middle schoolers, staring at them with their arms crossed and eyebrows cocked. They had always sensed that the middle schoolers weren't a normal bunch, and this proved it times x100.

"Look, that ladybug guy's made a leaf pillow for the kid." Yugito said, smiling cheerfully. Yugito was a happy-go-lucky type of guy. His cup was always half full, no matter what the situation. It also served to the fact that nothing really bored him, and he could go hours doing something, especially when he put his mind to it. He was a really great role model for the high schoolers, and most looked to him for advice and encouragement. He was everybody's best buddy. On the other hand,

"Can we change the channel?" Akana muttered, head resting on his hands. Akana's cup was usually empty altogether and everything bored him, except for tennis, video games, and his friends (at times). There were lots of people who had had Akana tell them that he only really liked them 75% of the time. He was one of those guys who gave off a scary, threatening aura but was actually quite friendly under all those cold layers.

"Ah, Coach Nyudo's coming!"

At the sound of the alarm, everyone instantly stopped what they were doing and slowly turned towards the growling coach.

"Looks like you trash have lots of spare energy, huh?"

Everyone remained silent, not wanting to do something that would make the coach set another wild animal on them. They were secretly afraid that he would pull out some kind of bigger and hungrier animal from the unknown depths of his cabin, like a tiger perhaps, or maybe a few full grown male lions if he felt like it.

"…..You chased the eagles off." He remarked, more of a statement than a question. "I didn't expect the hunt to end this quickly…it should usually last for another six hours at least."

_So in other words, we really should thank Echizen later on for setting us free from those damned eagles…_ everyone thought, giving Echizen a slight nod of thanks. _We lived…no need to wash a mountain of loincloths either! Hurrah!_

"However." He growled, eyes turning into glowing slits. Everyone froze yet again, scared that the coach would actually bring out another set of eagles to increase his "fun", not to mention his crew of loincloth-washers. "…..both Oni and Tokugawa can hit ten balls. You'll never beat them if you can't hit at least that many."

Everyone gave a secret sigh of relief before growing serious. They were beginning to realize just how big the gap between some of the high schoolers and themselves were, especially the high schoolers that were training in the U-17 camp at that very moment. If they didn't work harder, they knew that the gap would never be bridged. But at the same time, they really couldn't help but wonder what kind of official match would let them play with any number of multiple balls, let alone ten.

Ryoma smirked and walked over to Coach Nyudo, having been released from his emergency crew. "If that's the case, then why don't you teach us how to hit multiple balls?"

"…" Coach Nyudo frowned at Ryoma, then punched him full in the face. "Don't get so cocky you brat!" he yelled furiously, kicking Ryoma in the chest for good measure. He left the gasping Ryoma on the ground and turned to leave, sharply ordering Kabuto and Yugito to tell any other people who were still in the forest that the hunt was over and there was no need to hide.

"W-What do you think you're doing to Koshimae!" Kintaro yelled, scrambling to block Coach Nyudo's way. "How could you! He's already hurt-"

_-whiz!_

Everyone's eyes widened in shock as a chestnut whizzed by Coach Nyudo's head, missing it by a few millimeters.

"K…Koshimae…" Kintaro stuttered shakily.

Coach Nyudo slowly turned around and silently faced Ryoma.

"If you're too-"

Just then, for a split second, Coach Nyudo saw someone else in Ryoma, a shadow beside the determined boy. He hesitated, then shut his mouth and left, leaving the dumbfounded group in silence.

"You still have a lot to learn about this world…and yourself."

* * *

After the hunt had its abrupt ending, the middle schoolers had simply gone and prepared lunch, taking much longer than necessary to kill the time. Afterwards, everyone just went off to practice, doing separate training like chin-ups with the trees, balancing on rocks, climbing (there were lots of cliffs to do that with), and running in water or on sand. Coach Nyudo had shut himself up in his cabin and hadn't gone out since, not to give them orders, not even to send out for his crew of loincloth washers. For some reason, it seemed that the loincloth washing had been forgotten (much to the losers' who had had their balloons popped relief). It seemed that something had happened to strike a nerve of his, if that was ever possible.

Everyone, including the high schoolers, was quiet, as no one dared to break the thick fog of silence that enveloped them all. The sun had set, and everyone had finished dinner. Now most of them were just relaxing on the grass or in a cabin before bed.

_-Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Ba- thud!_

"Agh!" Ryoma winced as one of the balls he hit rebounded onto his head lightly, bouncing off his hat teasingly. He had been trying to hit multiple balls since the hunt had ended, even skipping dinner and lunch to do so. He just couldn't get the coach's words out of his head no matter what he did. However, he couldn't get past five balls to hit a sixth one. He sighed and gathered the balls before going back to a field of grass to take a rest.

"This is driving me insane…" he groaned, lying down on the ground.

"It isn't like you to be so caught up in your thoughts."

Ryoma turned his head to see Sanada approaching him, the senior having just finished his own training with some high schoolers. "It's none of your business." he replied in a monotone voice. The last thing he wanted was a lecture from the emperor. "I'm sorry, but please leave me alone."

"Just listen!" he sighed. He lay down next to Ryoma, looking up at the stars. "…..Did you lose?"

"Didn't I say it's none of your business?"

"Just listen! I also lost."

"Oh? That's too bad."

"Just listen! This camp hasn't been easy from the very start!"

"Of course."

"We've barely gotten a moment's rest!"

"We slept in till 9:30, are you kidding me?"

"_Just listen!_ …..ok, do you really think this training's been easy? Other than that one time, we were getting up to train in the rain at 3AM in the morning! Also, today has probably been the hardest day, having to make breakfast with only potatoes and getting chased by eagles right after. But….haven't you noticed the major improvements? I think this training…no, that coach has been our quickest shortcut to getting stronger. Much stronger."

"….But, he won't-"

_-whiz!_

_-thok!_

Ryoma frowned and dropped the spinning ball that he caught from his hands. Kabuto grinned and popped out of some bushes behind him cheekily, kicking up six balls with his feet.

"Hi hi! How's your little meeting going? Seems like you're noticing that coach's amesomeness?" he commented cheerfully, sitting next to Ryoma. "Well...he's not that great himself, but his training sure is."

Ryoma sat up wearily, adjusting his hat. "So…"

"Can I talk to you, Echizen-kun? I have something I want to ask." he said, looking at Sanada hesitatingly.

"Is that ok, Sanada-san?" Ryoma asked, turning towards him as well.

Sanada stood up and nodded. "Perfectly fine. I'll continue what I was saying later on, it can wait a little longer. I'll go talk to the others first. It's been a long day, so go back soon and sleep." With that, he gave Kabuto a curt nod and left, leaving the two in the shadows.

Kabuto smiled and threw the six balls in the air, launching them straight at Ryoma. "Heads up!"

_-Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Thud!_

"Che!" Ryoma gripped his racket in frustration as the sixth ball rocketed off the fence and innocently rolled over to Kabuto, having missed it. "You can hit multiple balls?"

Kabuto let out an indigent huff, pouting. "You think only the middle schoolers can do amazing feats? Be polite you cocky rookie or I won't help you! Gee, I was so sure that would work! Shock Therapy almost always works!"

Ryoma sighed, rolling his eyes. "You're a high schooler. The high schoolers don't like us middle schoolers much, so why are you helping me? We're supposed to be rivals not fr-" He was cut off by Kabuto, who had collapsed and retreated into a little corner of blue cloud depression, very similar to the one Koharu had had. He was even beginning to wail pitifully.

Ryoma sweat-dropped, staring at the shameful sight uneasily. "Uh…what the hell is wro- I mean…g-gomen. I didn't...um…mean it in a bad way…" he muttered, holding his hands up reproachfully._What the heck?_

Kabuto continued wailing quietly. "B-but I just wanted to be friends…A lot of the high schoolers only care about winning or losing! It sucks just having Yugito, Akana, Himura and Keisuke…sometimes they ignore me! How could they!" he yelled, clawing at the dirt in his despair. "We're supposed to be _friends!"_

…_Lonely much?_ he wondered, sighing. He was really learning lots about the high schooler, including the fact that he was very, very weird at times. "O..ok…uh…ok then, I'll…t-take that back, if it hurt your feelings." Ryoma replied, feeling very awkward. _I didn't know there were high schoolers like him_…he mused, making a face_. Well, when you meet high schoolers like Oni-san, Tokugawa-san, Sasabe-san and Matsudaira-san, it tends to give a…strong first_ _impression._

"Waaaiii~! So we can be friends?" Kabuto leapt up, full of energy again with his brown eyes sparkling. He grinned gleefully as Ryoma cautiously nodded. "Ja, let's start! I'll teach you one of the sacred secrets of hitting multiple balls at once!"

"If it's a secret, should you really be telling me?"

"It's ok, we're friends after all!" He said happily, picking up some balls. "But…" he cut in, turning serious. "But don't get the wrong idea, I'm not like that Koharu guy. That guy gives me the shakes!"

"Me too!"

"Why don't we head over to a cliff a little further away from the cabins? There's one that's much more spacious, and it's really well lit at night because of the moonlight that shines directly over it." he suggested, leaning in the direction hopefully. "But don't worry, it's not like I'm trying to isolate you then do something bad to you, I'm not that cunning."

Ryoma shrugged nonchalantly. "Whatever you want."

~o0o~

_At the cliff face somewhere on the mountain:_

"I told you it was nice!" Kabuto said proudly, examining the rock face contentedly.

"It looks like a regular rock face." Ryoma muttered. "Except that one part is quite smooth…" he remarked, surprised at the smoothness of the face. It almost felt like glass, it even had a slight reflection to it.

Kabuto grinned. "Yeah, this is why I like this one more, it's really easy to hit it, and it doesn't fly around in every direction because of an irregular bounce. Even though I'm sure all of you guys know how to hit back an irregular bouncing ball, it's still easier to start with this when you're rallying with multiple balls."

Ryoma nodded silently, waiting expectantly for him to continue.

"So anyways, the secret is to try to think as if you're splitting your mind into different sections, and focus on different things at the same time…it's hard, but that's how you hit multiple balls at the same time!"

_What?_ Ryoma paused, stunned by the choice of words. "R-repeat that…" he demanded, refusing to believe it.

_Previously:_

_Flashback:_

_-"Try to think as if you're splitting your mind into different sections, and focus on different things at the same time…it's hard, but that's how you hit-"_

Kabuto blinked in surprise. "Wait, what? The instructions? Was that hard to understand? Umm, try to think as if you're splitting your mind into different sections, and focus on different things at the same time."

Ryoma looked away, eyes wide. It was no mistake. The words were the same as the ones he had heard in the flashes that had gone through his mind before, though he couldn't tell if the voice had been the same or not. He couldn't quite remember whose voice had told him that, or if the voice had even been the right one or if it was a substitute voice from his brain. He turned back to the confused Kabuto, getting his voice back. "Kabuto-san…is there, maybe, like…another way of explaining that? I mean…is that the only way of explaining it?" he mumbled, struggling to put his question in words. He flushed slightly as he could tell the question sounded a little stupid.

Kabuto frowned. "Yeah, if your sense of vocabulary is extremely limited. There are countless ways of explaining something like that if you change the words around, but I find that way to be the simplest way. Why? If you're that curious, it was Tokugawa-san who taught me that. I mean, he didn't actually teach me, just gave me advice. It took a lot to get him to actually talk to me though...he is scary!"

_Tokugawa-san, huh….well, it's probably just a coincidence, if it's a common choice of words._

"I'll try that then, thanks. It's getting late, why don't you go back first?"

Kabuto looked slightly taken aback. "You can find your way back on your own? It's hard at night." he said worriedly.

"Yeah, thanks. It's like you said, the moonlight lights it up really well."

Kabuto gave Ryoma one last look before waving good bye and leaving the clearing, wishing him good luck.

"God…" Ryoma started, leaning against the rock face drowsily, the full force of the day finally finding its way to him. "I'll just take a little nap first..." He then felt a wave of sleepiness wash over him, and let his eyes slide shut, the moonlight still glowing softly on him. It was quite cool, but not cold, so Ryoma didn't have any objections to sleeping outside that night.

* * *

Meanwhile, almost all of the middle schoolers were gathered together at the blazing fire pit, having been there since dinner ended and were testing out their newly discovered abilities that they had only really noticed during the Sportsman Hunt. Most of them were in a heated discussion on how they had improved on things they could barely do before.

"Now I can do Low Moonsaults!" Gakuto explained, executing one as an example. "It's great, I never thought they were possible!"

"You didn't even know what they were in the first place!" Wakashi pointed out, much to Gakuto's embarrassment and the laughter of the others.

"Ever since the mission, my balance has improved!" Kenya remarked, smiling ruefully as he remembered how he had slipped off a rock into the river near the beginning. "I guess that coach really is….incredible!"

Momo frowned at Kenya, giving him a slight stink-eye. "What is this mission thing you keep talking about, Kenya-san? You mentioned that Echizen hit his head during that too. Was it something dangerous? Are you hiding something from us?" he asked suspiciously, leaning in darkly to a panicking Kenya.

"A-ask Tanishi!" Kenya yelled, scrambling away from the towering Momo.

Tanishi grinned, liking the sudden spotlight. "Yes, it was extremely dangerous!" he crowed, snapping his fingers and nodding expertly. "We went through a raging whirlpool, evaded sharp-toothed Dobermans and bats, jumped through blazing lasers, snuck past computerized cameras that were trying to track down our every move, and even had to risk our lives secretly liberating special select items from their lair!"

"In other words we went to the U-17 camp that was heavily guarded and stole stuff." Kenya finished dryly, shooting Tanishi a what-the-hell look. It was actually all true, but Kenya couldn't remember ever risking his life for anything. _And aren't cameras always computerized?_

He sighed, scratching his head. "Echizen, Tanishi and I were told by Coach Nyudo to go and get 100 new balls, 50 bars of soap, and…um, I forgot, I think it was 15 bottles of both shampoo and conditioner. Afterwards, we went into the bar lounge that was guarded with lasers – _lasers!_ – and then filled the coach's gourd with sake. At some point, I was trying to get past the lasers and it didn't go too well and I tripped, did some kind of sideways flip (Kin-chan, give it a name for me later on!), and rammed into Echizen. That's how he hit his head. I..._Tanishi_…" he growled, glaring at a red faced Tanishi. "tripped the lasers near the end, and so we ended up leaving our unwanted mark." He decided to keep his promise to Kaido and to not go into details about their meeting. He also decided to leave out the part about Akaya screaming out a dance routine. He didn't think anyone would believe them, and besides, he didn't want to risk angering the devil.

Tanishi's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, so no one even noticed we were gone?" he exclaimed angrily.

"…" Awkward silence.

Kenya gritted his teeth and simply decided to ignore the fact that they had been forgotten by their comrades, and instead took the chance to ask about the others' newfound skills. Sakata could now run in zigzags, Momo was getting close to hitting a Black Jack knife, Kintaro could also hit five balls, Kaido had gotten to two balls, Tanishi had gotten skinnier, etc. It would seem that everyone had an increase in each stat, with some others gaining a more specific ability.

"Then let's get back to our home sweet home, I believe it's time to go to sleep." Zaizen suggested, yawning widely. "I'm exhausted. I don't know what we're going to do tomorrow, as it seems that the coach has abandoned us altogether."

They all got up sleepily, and made their way to the cave. "I don't think this will continue on until tomorrow." Sanada replied reassuringly. "After all, he's already helped us all this way…it would be shameful for him to give up on us now."

"Yeah, but after that incident with Echizen…" Oishi murmured, looking around for the said rookie. "Wait, where _is_ Echizen?"

Everyone paused and looked around. "Not here, that's for sure." Kai said. "But then again, Inui, Yuuta, Renji, Kaido, and Jackal aren't here either. They must be back at the cave, or out practicing."

"It's so late, I'd say back at the cave!" Momo interjected, laughing. "But then again, Mamushi would be far too scared to go into the scarwie dark cave full of _ghosts!_" he finished with a screech. He then mimicked a screaming Kaido, stretching out his features and earning howls of laughter from the others. It was because of that that he didn't quite notice his fuming rival behind him until it was too late.

"_YOU BASTARD MOMOSHIRO! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"_

"_UWAH! M-M-MAMUSHI?"_

* * *

_Back at the cave:_

"Tadaima~!"

The middle schoolers entered their cave, being careful not to trip on its rocky surface. By now, the cave really _did_ feel like home, probably because they had learned the secrets of avoiding the freezing water droplets of doom. They had also spruced it up a bit, adding a few fiery torches to lighten up the cave, and also so they wouldn't bang into a wall or trip over someone when they went out to answer mother nature's call late at night. Someone had even taken some of their free time (probably Taka) to weave a makeshift blanket which served as a door to the cave so that the rain and wind didn't go in.

Inside, Yuuta rolled over sleepily, having been trying to fall asleep. He blinked at Momo's face, and his jaw dropped in shock. "W-What the hell happened to your face?" he exclaimed, now wide awake. "Did someone nail your face with a few balls?" He then burst out laughing, pointing at the bumps and bruises on Momo's face. "Pfft! I- ha ha! P-Put on a bandage or something!"

"Chances that he angered someone, probably Kaido judging by the way he's hissing behind Momo with his arms crossed, 120%"

"120.7%"

"I am NOT going to talk about it!" Momo muttered, biting his lip and glaring as Kaido hissed at him yet again. "Let's just say I said something that I _maybe_ shouldn't have said."

"You guys are finally back." Jackal yawned, rubbing his eyes drowsily. "What took you so long, it's around 11 o clock now, and for all we know we could be getting up at 3AM."

"I doubt it…" Taka replied quietly. "I don't think he's going to come out and train us for a while."

"Why is that damned coach suddenly so emotional?" Gakuto snapped, annoyed by the coach's mood swings. "I'm not joking here, tonight we're going to get lots of sleep and tomorrow we're going to go raging at his front door, agreed?"

"…"

"Hey, _AGREED?"_

"AGREED!"

"However, we're going to need a way of convincing him." Sanada said. "Maybe with sake?"

"That's a great idea, Sanada-san!" Momo said in approval, joined by the others. "We can sneak into the bar lounge! That'll be fun! Kenya-san will know the way!"

Kenya turned his head away from the others so that they wouldn't see his look of dismay. He honestly didn't want to go and sneak past the Dobermans a second time, much less Ina Bauer 10 times. Besides, he already knew that he coach probably had his own big store of sake…how else would he always have a gourd full? He clenched his fist, convinced of his plan.

"No way…I say we do the _opposite."_

_Owari_

**Thanks for reading! This is a bit of a random chapter, I guess that's why I'm updating it a bit quicker. Also, it's more snippets of conversations then actual conversations (that didn't make sense XP), so it took up 9 pages on Word quickly. Next chapter's title isn't decided, but the day starts with them talking to Coach Nyudo. It's also the day of the match with Court 3 and 5, and Yamato goes to talk to Ryoma about it. I think Tezuka's leaving too.**

**Thanks for reading! **


	8. Back to normal

**Hi! (I need a new greeting…) How's everyone's summer going? I feel so happy that I don't need to get up super early! This is chapter 8…**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Prince of Tennis! Not the characters, the plot for NPOT, nothing…If I did, NPOT would be weekly! XP I only own any plot in my fanfic that's not part of NPOT, along with the characters that aren't part of NPOT that are in my fanfic. yeahh…**

**Hope you enjoy! :D Thanks for reading! **

Chapter 8: Back to normal

_-tweet! tweet! tweet! tweet! tweet!_

_-tweet! chirp!_

_-chirp! chirp! tweet!_

_-moosh…_

_-ruffle…_

"Nnh…"

"Gah…"

"Stupid birdies!"

"It's early, what's with them? It's still dark out!"

_-SQWUAAK! SQWUAAK! SQWUAAAAAAAK!_

"Oh, come on!"

"Go to hell!"

"What time do they even wake up?"

"I thought birds migrated south by now!"

"Maybe we're that 'south'."

"Shut up! All of you are louder than those birds you know!"

"You have no right to talk!"

"Agh, everyone just shut your trap! I'm trying to sleep here!"

Once dozing near the middle of the cave, Zaizen rubbed his eyes and sat up in his sleeping bag drowsily. It was still dark out, as the sun always changed its schedule and rose late in the winter. Zaizen glanced down at his watch, being the only one to have a watch out of everyone and therefore was trusted for time warnings. He had somehow managed to save it from Coach Nyudo's confiscating spree by hiding it far up a tree in a bird's nest. For some reason, at the beginning of the camp he had taken all of their belongings, probably so that they didn't have any chance to relax with a book or play with their Nintendo 3DS. Then again, there would never be any time for that anyway.

The silver watch read around 5:04AM. If the coach was still asleep, then it was time to set their plan in action. Well, at least it was supposed to be. Most of the middle schoolers were still trying to sleep and had dug their heads even further into their sleeping bags, dragging the worn fabric over their heads with a_ moosh_. It seemed that everyone had succumbed to the spells of the monster named sleep. Sleep kills everyone's motivation.

Zaizen wriggled out of his sleeping bag, stamping his feet and shivering slightly in the cold. Rubbing his arms, he wearily kicked the snoring lump next to him, earning an angry growl in response. "Oi, get up!" he yelled. "Didn't we have a plan for today? Why is it me who's the one trying to wake you up? This is a total waste of time…" he muttered, stepping mercilessly on another lazy gray lump. _Tch…it's supposed to be me not wanting to get up!_

Sanada sighed and slipped out of his sleeping bag next, joining to give much needed help to Zaizen. "Well, since it looks like everyone's gotten used to the aspect of sleeping in…." he said, taking a deep breath.

"_GET UP RIGHT NOW! _WE SAID WE WERE GOING TO TAKE ALL THE NECESSARY STEPS TO MAKE OURSELVES STRONGER! RIGHT? _AND YOU'RE ALL STILL SLEEPING?_ TARUNDORU!" he roared, gaining another close up on his face with him yelling. Also, the echoing cave really added to the effect, and everyone winced as the echoes of "TARUNDORU!" soared off the walls and into their eardrums.

Zaizen, who had been quick enough and alert enough to plug his ears, was grateful that he was already awake. Sanada's method of waking the middle schoolers up was way more effective than Coach Nyudo's, not to mention his own.

"Nnh…" Momo moaned, face still hurting from his battle wounds against Kaido. "G-gomen, Sanada-san…geez, why didn't someone else wake us up?" he mumbled, irritated. "My poor ears…"

_Don't say I didn't try..._ Zaizen thought sleepily.

One by one, everyone slowly crawled out of their warm shells and gathered shivering at the center of the cave. It was dark in the cave too, as they put out the torches so they could sleep without light burning through their eyelids. It was even drizzling outside, with the clouds being a depressing stormy gray, so no one was in the mood to do anything, let alone convince a drunken coach to train them. Ryo stumbled over to the makeshift door and peered outside. All was silent. Well, except for the pitter-patter of the rain and the birds, who were still chattering non-stop.

"Yosh…" Kenya started, stretching his arms out wearily and yawning. "So we're all clear on the plan?"

_Flashback:_

"_No way…I say we do the _opposite_."_

_The middle schoolers blinked back at him in surprise. "Wait…what?" Momo started, shocked. "You mean, get rid of the sake that the coach has? Is that really a good idea? We might make him angrier! And what's to say he's got sake anyway?"_

_Kenya bit his lip. There were a lot of holes in the plan that wasn't actually his own. "Well...actually, this wasn't my idea…." he started, before trailing off. "Where's Echizen? This was actually _his_idea."_

_Silence hovered over them. Echizen still hadn't returned from his late night practice. "I…you don't suppose he's still training? At this hour?" Oishi said worriedly. "It's quite late! Not to mention cold…"_

_Momo gave a rueful laugh. "That guy…it's so like him. While we're sitting here complaining that the coach isn't training us, he's off training himself."_

"_Echizen goes with the flow, doesn't he?" Kai remarked, nodding. "We should follow his example…"_

"_Yeah…well anyway," Kenya continued. "I was training with Echizen a bit and we were talking about how we might be able to convince the coach to train us again. I mean, we can surely train ourselves, but the coach's method seems to be a faster shortcut. I suggested getting a bunch of sake for him, but Echizen told me that he had seen a shed full of sake somewhere near the bottom of the mountain. So…it's in a clearing next to the cooking shed. In other words, it'd be useless to try and get him more sake that he already has…so we should take the risk of burning all of his sake to get him to notice us." he explained breathlessly, exilerated by the plan._

"_That might have a backwards effect." Taka protested. "The coach might get so angry that he'll….you know, maybe throw us all over a cliff."_

_"Do you really believe he'd do that?" Gakuto retorted skeptically. "I think that would count as something we humans call 'murder'. As much as that coach hates us, I don't think he would risk going behind bars for launching us over cliffs."_

"_There's always the chance of something bad happening though…like the way Echizen got kicked and punched after the hunt. That's why it's a risk. But you know, if he agrees to training us, we can always sneak into the bar lounge afterwards to refill his supply. It's like making a deal, right?"_

"_Yeah!" Kintaro cheered. "That'll be fun! I wanna run from sharp-toothed Dobermen!"_

_Kenya made a face at his super rookie. "Kintaro…Are you a masochist or something? So yeah…what do you guys think? Should we do a vote? All in favor?"_

_Everyone looked and each other and nodded, raising their hands._

"_All opposed?"_

_No one._

_Flashback end_

"Then it's off to the sake shed!" Kenya declared, punching the air with his fist.

"YEA-"

"Be quiet! It's 5:00AM! Are you trying to wake everyone up? This cave echoes you know, and the high schooler's cabin is nearby!"

"Eh..." Momo started, warily eyeing Sanada. "I honestly think Sanada-san's…um…_motivational talk_ already did the job for us."

Kenya gritted his teeth before sighing in resignation. "Great, we're doomed. So since we're doomed, let's go at it and let out a cheer. AS LOUD AS YOU CAN!"

"_YEAH!"_ the middle schoolers chorused, laughing. "LET'S DO THIS!"

"Wait." Sanada ordered, checking the sea of faces again. A hint of worry in his eyes betrayed a deep-rooted concern.

"Echizen never came back."

* * *

"Hum….Now this is confusing."

Yamato smiled as he made his way up the mountain. There was nothing he liked more than the fresh, peaceful outdoors. He had often gone fishing with Tezuka, as the two shared the same hobby. He had been greatly delighted when Tezuka had sent him a picture of the Oishi bait that Oishi had given Tezuka, and even more so when Tezuka offered Yamato a try with the unique bait. He was certain it brought good luck, although sometimes it felt like the fishes swam _away_ from the bait.

He was wearing a simple black turtleneck and dark blue jeans as to not attract too much attention from the losers. He was worried that it could cause problems, having the losers see a winner in their territory - not so much for the middle schoolers, but more for the ruthless high schoolers. It was one day before the shuffle match between Court 3 and 5, and Yamato had headed out to the mountains, not wanting to go on the day of his match and risk being late. However, the mountains were quite….._vast,_ and he was having trouble finding what he was looking for…Echizen Ryoma. He didn't want to go to the open clearing of Coach Nyudo's cabin either, as it would be certain that he would be spotted. He just wanted to find Echizen Ryoma and invite the boy to go watch Tezuka's match the next day.

But now he was completely lost.

First of all, there were multiple mountains, so he didn't know which one to go up. He had simply chosen the one on the far left, since it looked like a more challenging one to climb and that's exactly what Coach Nyudo would have the middle schoolers scale. But from there, he had had to climb up the entire mountain, and the fact that there was a broken bridge halfway through didn't really help much.

"Ahh…" he sighed, scratching his head. "I wonder if I can find Echizen-kun…I was smart to come a day before the match." Yamato looked around the expanse of trees, sighing. He was now at a cliff face, the fourth one that day. He had hoped to find Ryoma practicing at one of them. Apparently not.

"Maybe he's not around here… Perhaps I should have gone up the southern route, with the steeper cliffs- WHOA!"

Startled, Yamato felt his breath knocked out of him as he tripped over something on the ground, nearly ramming into the cliff face itself. "Oof…My luck really isn't good today!" He brushed himself off and chuckled, before noticing exactly what he had tripped over.

"E-Echizen-kun!"

* * *

"….is this really ok?"

"Um….the coach still hasn't come out…"

"Dude, all we did was burn around 50 bottles of sake. Is this _really_ going to catch his attention?"

"I can't even smell the sake anymore. All I smell is fire."

"You mean smoke?"

"I swear I can hear him snoring."

Around half of the middle schoolers were standing at the fire pit next to the coach's cabin, feeling awkward as they stood around listening to the sake sizzle in the flames. They had found the sake shed just like Kenya/Echizen had said right in a clearing next to the one with the cooking shed and waterfall. There were exactly 77 bottles of sake in there, with 50 of the bottles emptied out and spewed all over the ground. The air was thick with the sharp, sweet stench of sake and the musky smell of the smoke.

Jackal sighed and shuffled his hands in his pockets impatiently. "This isn't working."

Next to him, Niou rolled his eyes. "Piyo Puri. It's only been 5 minutes since we burned the stuff. With all these bottles lying around, someone's bound to notice."

"Yeah, but it's only really effective if _Coach Nyudo_ notices." Jackal retorted, staring hopefully at the coach's cabin, door still closed. They stopped as the other half of the middle schoolers ran up to them, carrying the last few bottles of sake and bad news.

"We couldn't find Echizen." Oishi said, downcast. "We looked everywhere we could without risking getting lost. He could be anywhere! There are tons and tons of mountains, rocks, rivers, _cliffs-"_

"Oishi, calm down, I'm sure he's ok." Taka said reassuringly, a failed attempt to soothe Oishi, who was now dropping down to full-blown mother hen mode.

"No way…" Ryo muttered in disbelief. "Oi, when was the last time anyone saw him?"

"I last saw him at the field near here." Sanada said, glancing over at the high schooler's cabin direction. "I was talking to him, but then that high schooler Kabuto came to talk to him and the two went off somewhere."

"Maybe Koshimae's been practicing the whole night?" Kintaro suggested, though he knew it was unlikely. Although Ryoma was extremely dedicated, he wasn't going to risk decreasing his performance the following day due to lack of sleep, especially since he preferred practicing during the day.

"He would have come back by now!" Momo replied worriedly. "Even an ignorant, insensitive guy like Echizen wouldn't want to risk worry-"

_"What the hell have you brats done?"_

The middle schoolers whirled around as Coach Nyudo slammed the door of his cabin open and trudged down the steps, glaring daggers as he kicked his discarded bottles of sake away in disgust.

"Uh…" All of a sudden, the middle schoolers all forgot what they were even going to say. They stood there, tongue-tied and staring at each other uncertainly as Coach Nyudo glared at them with his arms crossed expectantly. Their worry for Echizen had distracted them too much.

All except for Sanada.

"We would like you to continue training us." Sanada declared, looking Coach Nyudo straight in the eyes. "I apologize, but burning all of your sake was the only way to get you to come out."

"It didn't have to be this hard!" Ryo spoke up, returning Coach Nyudo's glare with his own scathing one. The rest of the middle schoolers nodded and stood defiantly in front of Coach Nyudo, heads held high.

"…..You trash burned all my sake for that?" he growled. "I ought to-"

"_Train them!"_

Everyone gasped in shock as all of the high schoolers approached them on the balcony of their cabin, carrying armfuls of empty sake bottles. They let them fall to the ground with a crash, shattering on the ground satisfyingly. Everyone on the ground had to jump back to avoid cutting themselves on the flying shards of glass. All of the high schoolers, even Sasabe and Matsudaira, were there though Sasabe stood back with a reproachful look on his face. "Who says they…and _we,_ can't keep up with your training?" Kabuto asked triumphantly, joined by the roars from the rest of the high schoolers.

"And most of all, who says you can just stop training us when you've only trained us halfway?"

The middle schoolers' faces turned from determined to stunned, then relieved as Ryoma walked into the clearing, pale but otherwise ok. His golden eyes seemed to reflect the fire in front of them, representing all the feelings of the members around him as he tossed up six balls and launched them right at Coach Nyudo without hesitation.

_-thok!_

As expected, Coach Nyudo caught them all easily, barely moving a muscle to do so. He let them drop. Everyone fell silent as they marveled at Ryoma's ability to now hit six balls. The hours he had spent training had paid off. Ryoma walked up to Coach Nyudo until he was right in front of him, almost daring him to do something. But there wasn't arrogance in his eyes. There was only pure determination.

"…Right now, six balls are my limit. But I will get to ten."

There seemed to be a telltale sign of satisfaction in Coach Nyudo's eyes as he noted the unmistakable progress. "…..Well, I've always hated those damned elite U-17 coaches…" he growled. Everyone held their breath, not daring to say a single word as Coach Nyudo walked over to the fire pit, snatching up a flaming branch.

"Men, you must kick their butts! This is a revolution!" he roared, thrusting the branch in the direction of the U-17 camp.

"YEAH!" Everyone, middle schoolers and high schoolers alike thumped their fists in the air and cheered, exhilarated by their success. The cheering continued for a solid five minutes before Coach Nyudo interrupted them, still stoney-faced. It would seem...that something was off.

"…..However." The coach threw his branch back on the fire and made his way back to his cabin. "You burned all of my sake. I cannot function without sake."

"_EHHH?"_

"_COME BACK WHEN YOU'VE GOT 100 FULL BOTTLES OF THE FINEST SAKE!"_

"_NANI!? YOU'RE KIDDING ME!"_

* * *

"Echizen!"

"Where the hell were you?" Momo yelled, rushing up to Ryoma and ruffling his hair. He was afraid Ryoma would fall over if he gave him a headlock. "We were worried! We sent out our own little search party you know! Are you ok? You're so pale! You're an idiot, you know that! You can't worry us like that, you just can't!"

Ryoma bowed his head apologetically. "Gomen ne, minna-san. I fell asleep outside after training. No big deal."

"Fell asleep outside! In the middle of winter!" Ryo said, shaking his head. "You should be more careful! Honestly, we thought you had injured yourself and were unable to come back! You're really pale! Are you really ok?"

Taka ushered him near the fire pit. "Sit here Echizen, it'll help you warm up more…"

Ryoma gave them a rare smile. "I'm really fine."

_Flashback:_

"_E-Echizen-kun!" Yamato rushed over to the collapsed boy anxiously, though not touching him in case he was injured. "Echizen-kun, can you hear me? Echizen-kun!"_

"_Unh…" Ryoma moaned, putting a hand to his head. After a few tries, he managed to pry his heavy eyelids open, blinking a few times to get the fogginess out of his eyes. His body ached all over, though he felt quite warm. He winced at the sudden sharpness of the cold air, shuffling deeper into his coat._

"_Can you sit up? Are you injured?" Yamato asked worriedly, putting an arm around the boy supportively as he struggled to sit up. "What in the world happened?"_

"_I….fell asleep…I was really tired." he explained wearily, yawning. "Whoops. Guess sleeping outside really isn't a good idea in the long run. I'm alright, no need to worry." Ryoma then looked up at the unfamiliar face, frowning slightly. "…Who are you?"_

"_Oh…" Yamato chuckled. "Aie, it would seem you don't recognize me…" He pulled out a pair of black sunglasses and held them to his face, smiling. "Now?"_

_Ryoma's eyes widened as he recognized the former captain of Seigaku. "Yamato-san!"_

_Yamato nodded in approval. "Yes, it's me. It's good to see you again, Echizen-kun. Do I look different?"_

_Ryoma hesitated, looking thoughtfully at him. "Yes, you really look different…Is your passport picture the same as how you look now?" he asked curiously._

"_Eh, that was a problem at first. I had to pay lots to get my ID pictures changed…for some reason, it would seem that people can't recognize me! All I did was grow out my hair and dye it orange. Also, I'm wearing contacts right now, because I've been noticing that I get tan marks around my eyes that make it look like I'm a reverse panda. A young man from Yamabuki who also looks like a reverse panda told me that. Hmm, I forgot his name...Toji? Moji? Anyways, are you sure you're ok? No memory loss, loss of feeling anywhere..."_

_Ryoma shook his head. "I'm fine, but thanks. This jacket kept me warm…uh….is it yours?" he asked, pulling a corner of the jacket to get a better look._

"_No, I thought it was…I suppose not, it's far too big for you."_

_Ryoma looked down at the jacket that was snuggly wrapped around him. It was two or three sizes too big for him, and was a wooly brown sweater with a furry inside and furry hood, with two white snowball pull strings and a belt. There was no name on it, but it was probably what had kept Ryoma from getting hyperthermia, or even from freezing to death. He would have been a whole lot worse if he had slept outside at night in the middle of winter on a mountain not wearing anything but a thin white t-shirt and shorts. In his protest though, he had thought it was quite warm._

"_So…what are you doing here, Yamato-san?"_

_Yamato smiled. "This is what I came here for. You see, I'm on Court 3, and tomorrow we're going to play a match against Court 5. I'm playing a match against Tezuka-kun, and I want you to come along and watch, if you're feeling up to it."_

_Ryoma felt a slight tingle of excitement at the thought of seeing his captain again, but he quickly stamped it out. "I….I don't think so. I'm feeling fine and all, but…I have training up here. Besides, I think I need to get back, it'll get bright soon, and I might have worried the others by not showing up last night."_

_Yamato nodded understandingly, but there was something else hidden deep down in his eyes that Ryoma couldn't quite place. "That's alright…however…"_

"_This may be Tezuka-kun's last match in Japan."_

_Flashback end_

"Well, I honestly didn't expect that to work!" Gakuto exclaimed, sitting down on the fence. Ryoma blinked in surprise before nodding quickly, having been staring off into space for a moment. The mysterious brown jacket had been hurriedly stuffed into his tennis bag as to not be confiscated by the coach (he also took away all their clothes except for the white stuff so they could go turn into icicles in the rain and snow). He had a feeling it might be Kabuto's, as he was the only one who knew where he had been, and he wanted to at least give the sweater back.

After the coach had agreed to training them again, but with the cost of getting him 100 bottles of sake, he had left, leaving everyone at the clearing. They had cleaned up the sake bottles (the high schoolers began to sorely regret shattering 20 bottles), and the high schoolers had left to go wash them out before storing them away someplace (they hoped they could find a way to recycle them, or take them to a place like Recycle Depot to at least make some money off of them.). So it left the middle schoolers, who were now sitting around the fireplace to watch the sun rise. Some people had taken the liberty to bring out their sleeping bags and wrap themselves up in it, as it was beginning to get colder and colder.

"Kuh…." Ryo huffed in annoyance, kicking a branch. There always seemed to be a branch within Ryo's reach, especially when he was annoyed. "Now what? We need to form a group to go steal 100 bottles of the_ finest_ sake."

Gakuto thumped him on the back, laughing. "Geez, just think that you need more exercise! That'll get you going!"

"Hey, be careful or I might take that the wrong way!" Ryo retorted warningly, but he was grinning. "Ok, ok, then, I was just thinking that I needed more exercise! Better?" he asked, over the laughter of everyone else.

"B-but we're going to be stealing so much sake! That's not going to go unnoticed by the coaches of U-17!" Kenya protested. "One day there's a shelve full of 100 new, unopened fine bottles of sake, and the next day they magically disappear into thin air! Or maybe we could say they transformed into dust bunnies, how's that?"

"We'll be long gone before that happens!" Wakashi replied logically, earning a glare from Kenya. In truth, the Speed star really didn't want to go.

"Also," Yuuji started, cuddling up with Koharu (it seemed that the two had somehow made up during the Sportsman Hunt and were a happy couple again, much to the others' relief). "We can't send too many people, but we have to send enough people to be able to carry the 100 bottles without dropping them. If we drop them…"

"We'll get caught."

Momo tapped his foot impatiently. "Yeah yeah, let's figure it out later on, kay? No matter what, we can't go till nighttime, when everyone's asleep. Let's just train ourselves first. We're going to get nowhere at the rate we're going!"

"We need to make plans first, baka Momoshiro!" Kaido hissed, grabbing Momo's shirt collar. Ever since their last argument, Momo and Kaido had been on very bad terms. Then again, they were always on very bad terms.

"Oh I'm _so_ sorry, Mamushi!" Momo sneered, trying to push Kaido's face away. "Did I hurt your petty little feelings?"

"Hey you two, can't you go a day without fighting?" Oishi groaned, feeling his stomach contract. He decided that he really needed to ask Tezuka if Aspirins worked for situations like these.

Ryoma sighed and faced the bickering group, face glowing from the firelight. "Let's just make a quick plan then use the rest of the day to train. There's no way we can bring everyone, it'll be hard to avoid Dobermen with that many."

"But we still need to be able to carry 100 bottles of sake." Sanada interjected, frowning. "But if we bring our tennis bags, we should be able to fit around…I'd say five or six bottles, as to not risk breaking them. We'd also need to wrap them in cloths so that they don't break if they clang against each other."

"The bar lounge has dishcloths inside the sink, I remember seeing some." Kenya suggested, looking much happier now that his chances of going on the mission were smaller. "So you know, I was thinking that I shouldn't be-"

"Good. Then, who wants to go? We should need around sixteen people. I'm going to go, and I believe Kenya and Echizen should go as well, as they know the way around."

"W-What about me?" Tanishi protested. "I went too!"

"You tripped the alarm last time! We aren't risking anything!" Kenya snapped. Deep down, he was cursing at his bad luck. _So even in the end I have to dodge Dobermen and Ina Bauer!_ he thought, tearing up comically. _Oh my Kami-sama…_

"I'm going!" Momo yelped, quick to claim a part. _Sanada-san, the Emperor of Rikkaidai, one of the Big Three…doing Ina Bauers! I cannot miss this!_ It seemed that the other middle schoolers were thinking this, as they were all shooting glances at Sanada and claiming parts quickly. Even Kenya's face had lightened up once Momo had told him to imagine Sanada doing Ina Bauers and the rest of the dance routine. The team to go was quickly decided, and content with their plan, the middle schoolers went off to practice, feeling a deep sense of adrenaline within them at the thought of sneaking into the elite U-17 camp.

After a few hours/Omake: To the bar lounge en mass!

"Are we there yet?"

"It's right there! I see it!"

"So…here it is…" Kenya announced in a monotone voice, pointing to the bar lounge, joined by its oh-so-friendly welcoming party of lasers. He had somehow become the host, because he apparently knew the way around best (as if the other middle schoolers hadn't once trained at the camp too). Echizen could have done it, but when it came to the middle schoolers, it seemed like there was always a target to bully. It was usually Kaido (especially at night), but today it looked like everyone wanted to bully Kenya. So now he felt like a tour guide, pointing out every little thing every 5 seconds. All he was missing was a little tour guide hat.

In the end, the high schoolers had wanted to go as well, but it was soon ruled out as a mob of 60 big guys hulking around would not sneak past the guards unnoticed. In the end, five high schoolers (Sasabe, Matsudaira, Kabuto, Yugito and some other nameless guy) had joined 16 of the middle schoolers (Ryoma, Sanada, Kintaro, Momo, Kenya, Gakuto, Ryo, Niou, Yuuta, Zaizen, Inui, Renji, Oishi, Taka, Wakashi, and Kabaji.) to make a group of 21. It was already a pretty big number, but for some reason the security was extremely lack that day, and although the highly anticipated Dobermen were there, they had gotten into the bar lounge's lobby without much trouble. There weren't many guards around, unlike the last time they had gone. However, the lasers were still there (much to Momo's relief).

(A/N: I apologize, but I don't have the viewing pleasure of Sanada and the rest of the middle schoolers doing Ina Bauers, so it's best to just imagine it~)

But for some reason, while Sanada was doing Ina Bauers, Akaya chose that exact moment to walk into the lounge, having been tricked into doing so again by Marui (who left a packet of strawberry gum this time. It wasn't like it was his favorite, but he had wanted to give it a try. Besides, he could never resist a chance at tricking Akaya into doing something.)

"UWAAHH! STEP STEP ONE TWO ONE TWO, TURN AND INA BAUER!" he wailed, shooting out of the lounge. "MARUI-SEMPAI YOU JERK! I THOUGHT YOU SAID THERE WOULDN'T BE A GHOST ANYMOORRE!" It looked like a bunch of weird, distorted shadows looming around in a humming red light was much scarier than when it had only been one person, no matter how big that person had been.

Niou arched his eyebrows as he watched Akaya streaking down the path with dust clouds forming behind him. "What the hell has Bakaya been doing in this camp?"

"Akaya…has he been making _any_ progress in this camp?" Sanada murmured darkly, slowly clenching his fists. "Or has he been slacking off…and dropping his Rikkaidai tennis pride…."

Not noticing the growing tension, Momo burst out laughing. "Nothing good, I'm guessing, not by the way he's singing out some kind of dance routine!…you know what, I'm kind of happy I'm not in the camp right now. Looks like Kirihara-san's been slacking off ever since Sanada-san's left!"

Inui grinned maliciously. "Kirihara Akaya is interested in dance routines, huh….ii data…"

"Huh…" Zaizen started, shaking his head. "So this is what the great Rikkaidai is really about? Dancing when they're scared? How unexpected. Sanada-san, does it really work?" he asked seriously, before noticing the look on the Emperor's face.

"Usu…"

"Eh? Is Kabaji agreeing?"

"Um, he said that Rikkaidai is weirder than expected but that every team has their weird points." Taka translated, blushing slightly as everyone's jaws hit the ground.

"Usu…"

"He, uh, also said that it relates to some kind of legend in this camp."

"Taka-san, y-you understand Kabanese?"

"Y-yes, but it's not hard." he stammered, putting a hand behind his hand and bowing modestly. "Gin-san knows too."

"Well," Yuuta started, smothering a grin, "Guess Sanada-san's Ina Bauers scared the living daylights out of him. Wait till my brother hears this!"

"…" Everyone fell silent as they noticed a very familiar black aura loom around Sanada, growing bigger and bigger with each comment they made. They all stepped back, high schoolers included, as the Emperor's eyes began to glow a vicious red, matching the scenery of the glowing lasers.

"Akaya-kun had better prepare himself. He just tarnished Rikkaidai's name and pride with that, didn't he." the nameless high schooler said, pressing himself against a wall far away from Sanada.

Ryoma smirked, liking where this was heading. "Mada mada dane, Rikkaidai."

Over at the dorms of U-17, everyone woke up and sat up in their beds, shooting glances outside as they swore they could hear Sanada yelling "TARUNDORU!" and "YOU BETTER PREPARE YOURSELF!". As for Akaya, he just wailed and ran even faster.

_Owari_

**Thanks for reading! This is another seriously pointless chapter, gomen. Nothing really happens. But it's here for a reason! (it'll be explained later…) Taka and Gin really do speak Kaba-language XD it was shown in Pairpuri 5. I'm beginning to wonder if my story's actually getting anywhere. I just don't want to rush it XP But I guess it's moving at a bit of a snail's pace, so I'm going to get them reinstated in the camp soon so Ryoga can come and the story can get a move on. I know my story's pretty boring at the moment, so I really appreciate everyone who actually follows it XD. Next chapter, simply put, Ryoma goes to watch Tezu-chan's match!**

**Tezuka: *bristles*: **_**Tezu-chan?**_

**janckw: Aw crap…*sweats* I-I didn't actually mean- er, then how about Tezu-sama?**

**Tezuka: **_**500 laps!**_

**Next chapter preview:**

"So it isn't yours?"

"That's actually insulting."

"Eh? What are you ta-" A beeping from Zaizen's watch caused him to jump. "Ah, crap I need to go! I might miss the match at this rate." He hurriedly began back down the path, shouldering the jacket.

"…Wait. Can I give you some advice then?"

"…What is it?"

"If you're going to say something, say it while you still have the chance to. If not, you'll regret it forever, I promise you that."

**Thank you for reading! You guys are the absolute best :D Please review! Positive feedback, Constructive Criticism, they're highly appreciated! One more thing….I'm going to have a full tennis match in there at some point, I promise.**


	9. One last time

**Can't think of an authors note...I'm going to Las Vegas for a week (leaving today, actually XD), so chapter 10 might/will take longer to upload.**

**DISCLAIMER: Don't own prince of tennis, all the characters and such belong to Takeshi Konomi. All I own is my plot that's not part of NPOT...and...the OCs?**

**I find it so weird reading fanfics on the computer, because it's distracting, a full page of text. I like reading fanfics on tablets instead XP it only shows a bit at a time.**

**This chapter's slightly shorter than the past few ones, I was finding that they were getting too long.**

**Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy**

Chapter 9: One last time

_-Bam!_

"GO!" Coach Nyudo growled as yet another middle schooler's racket toppled to the ground.

"ITAI!" Sakata yelped, ducking as a ball whizzed by him, nicking his hair.

"Agh!" Gakuto moonsaulted out of the way, losing his grip on his racket and shrugging sheepishly as the ball soared off the cliff. He definitely didn't want to be the one who climbed down to get it.

"….Hit it back you trash! What, it's too hard for you? You don't duck when a ball comes, you _hit _it!" the coach snapped.

The middle schoolers were gathered around the court on the cliff (actually, it was the only court on the mountain in general), practicing hitting a ball over the net with a lead racket. This time though, those lead rackets weighed much more than the ones they had started with, almost double, if not more, the weight. Momo proved this point well by falling over when the coach threw one at him. Coach Nyudo had a lead racket too, and was hitting balls over to their side so that the middle schoolers could 'return' them.

At the moment though, it wasn't going too well. The rackets were so heavy that it took all of their strength just to stand up on the court. The coach, on the other hand, was wielding his lead racket as if it was just a feather, and wasn't even breaking a sweat. He also wasn't looking too happy about the way they were 'keeping up with the training', and was mercilessly launching the balls far away from them. Unfortunately, that led to many balls taking a trip down off cliffland, so there would definitely be a grueling trip to retrieve them later on. That morning they had delivered the promised 100 bottles of sake, thus making them eligible for the hellish training again.

"HIT IT!" Coach Nyudo bellowed, hitting a ball towards Momo, tired of the middle schoolers just standing there. "I THOUGHT YOU BRATS WANTED TRAINING!"

"WAAAH!"

Not that anyone was appreciating it much at the moment.

_-Bam!_

At the sound of a ball actually being returned, everyone stopped (gratefully) and watched as Ryoma shot forward out of nowhere and hit the ball back, before running to the other side and hitting back another one. Before long the entire court was silent as Ryoma darted back and forth, side to side, returning every single ball the coach hit, with the same rackets that everyone was having trouble just holding. Even Sanada, Kintaro, Momo and Taka had problems with the racket, and they were the ones famous for being plain strong.

"Koshimae…?" Kintaro blinked as Ryoma continued to chase after the balls. "Why are you…"

"E-Echizen, you don't think you're putting a little too much into this? What's up with you?" Momo asked hesitantly as Ryoma paused to take a breath. Earlier that day he had asked Ryoma the same question when he had found him skipping lunch to practice hitting multiple balls again, with not much of an answer.

"Don't push yourself!" Oishi said worriedly, "We're here too!"

"But you keep missing." Yuuta pointed out. "We all keep missing."

"I'm fine!" Ryoma yelled, brushing the sweat off his face. "Once more!"

_-Bam!_

_30 minutes later:_

"ALRIGHT! Take a 30 minute break!" the coach yelled, frowning at the sad batch of collapsed middle schoolers. "Cliff climbing will take place right after!"

"Ahhh…"

"Thank god!"

"Relief!"

"We're saved!"

The middle schoolers had all plopped onto the ground panting, watching ruefully as the coach strolled off, not even breathing hard. They winced as they tried to ease their strained muscles, which were at the moment screaming at them in the by now very well-known language of pain.

"But…" Ryo started, glancing over at Ryoma, who was panting heavily with his hands on his knees away from them. "That guy…"

"Hit back every single freaking ball with those heavy as hell rackets." Momo finished, shaking his head. "What happened to him?"

"Yeah," Kintaro replied, "Koshimae pretty much hogged all the balls! It's just like when we played doubles!"

"Kintaro…he always hogs the ball in doubles." Momo replied, smirking. "Echizen can't play doubles to save his life. _That's_ normal."

"Not that it's…weird or anything for Echizen to try hard…" Oishi started.

"It's just that something feels different about him." Sanada finished.

"That brat…" Momo muttered, looking down at his feet. "What happened during the Sportsman Hunt, this…he never tells me anything, even though I'm his best friend."

Ryoma frowned as he listened to their comments, though trying to make it seem like he couldn't. Not only was their 'whispering' way louder than they thought, his hearing was sharper than average. Was it really abnormal for him to not talk about what was bothering him? Didn't he try hard all the time anyway? He couldn't help but think 'Mada mada dane' at them, rolling his eyes.

"Nothing's wrong…" he muttered under his breath. "I'm just a little extra pumped up today."

"But that's coming from negative energy."

Ryoma braced himself and looked up to see Coach Nyudo in front of him, looming over him like a shadow and glaring just as darkly. The others fell silent and watched curiously as Coach Nyudo faced Ryoma with his arms crossed, though they were slightly worried. One of the last times they had encountered each other, the result had been Ryoma getting hurt. No matter what anyone did, they just couldn't forge a friendly relationship with the stone-faced Coach Nyudo.

"You're an eyesore. Get out of here." Coach Nyudo ordered.

Ryoma just stared, confused. "Huh?"

"You heard everything I said. Flush those negative feelings out of your system. Those feelings are screaming out, it's like someone's trying to pour ice water over me. It's distracting. Go."

"…."

"I SAID GO!"

* * *

"…."

Ryoma ran down the path that led to U-17, wishing he had known it existed earlier. Maybe then he wouldn't have had to climb ten thousand cliffs to get up the mountain in the first place, and it would have been a much more convenient method of transport than a river in a cave. It was a rocky path, but it went directly down to yet another shed (that was locked), before forking off and leading down to U-17.

_Flashback:_

"_That's alright…but…this may be Tezuka-kun's last match in Japan."_

_._

"_I can tell your energy's coming from negative thoughts. Go and flush them out of your system."_

_._

"_E-Echizen, aren't you putting a little too much into this? What's up with you?"_

_._

"_Not that it's...weird for him to try hard, but…"_

"_Something seems different about him today."_

_._

"_That brat…he never tells me anything, even though I'm his best friend."_

_Flashback end_

Ryoma shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. He really needed something to distract him, part of the reason why he had agreed to watching Tezuka's match. Not only were the memory flashbacks bothering him, he hadn't had the chance to really speak to any of his friends recently. He paused at the rickety shed, peering inside the keyhole curiously when finding that it was locked.

"What's in here…" he muttered, frowning as he tried to make out the dark shapes in the shed. "What the he-"

"Oh? If it isn't Echizen-kun!"

Startled, Ryoma jumped away from the shed on reflex as Kabuto walked into the clearing, whistling. He had a habit of sneakily popping up wherever Ryoma happened to be. "What are you doing here?"

"I got kicked out of practice. You?" Ryoma asked wearily, while looking down at Zaizen's watch. Zaizen had 'lent' it to him (in truth, he had stolen it, but he was going to give it back and all. It was just that the coach told him not to take more than 2 hours, and he was afraid of being late.) right before he had left.

"On a break because the coach went to train you guys, though I think he's done by now. So anyways…what's up?" he asked casually, smiling. But deep down, he was furiously racking his brains, trying to figure out what Ryoma had done to get 'kicked out' of practice.

"Nothing. I need to go down to U-17, I'll see you." he replied, turning to leave. "Wait!" he said, remembering something. He took off the brown coat he had gotten the day before when he had fallen asleep outside, and handed it to Kabuto. He had brought it with him because he was honestly cold.

"Is this jacket yours?"

Kabuto examined the jacket for a moment before shaking his head. "Nope. I was about to ask you where you got it…no, how you managed to _keep_ it. That coach took everything except for things people wear all the time, like my glasses and that Fila wristband of yours. Honestly, that guy's a dictator!" he seethed, steam puffs shooting out of his ears.

"So…it really isn't yours?" Ryoma insisted.

"…That's actually a bit insulting." Kabuto retorted, handing back the jacket and making a sour face.

"Eh? What are you-" A sudden beeping from Zaizen's watch made him remember what he was supposed to do in the first place (though he didn't know why it beeped. Maybe an alarm had been set by Zaizen). "I have to go, I might miss the match at this rate-" he cut off and cursed silently at the fact that he had told someone about the match. He had wanted to keep it a secret, for some unknown reason. "Anyways, see you."

"Oh, um…" Kabuto started, "By the way, are you ok and all? I mean-"

"…I'm fine." Ryoma replied, slightly annoyed. "Everyone keeps asking me that…"

"Uh…w-well, we're not trying to get on your nerves or anything…" Kabuto continued, looking nervous. He had been afraid to ask Ryoma if he was ok, and this was the reason. "They're just worried about you…I mean…"

"…I need to go. Bye." Ryoma replied curtly, turning away to leave. As nice as Kabuto was being, he wasn't in the mood for another person fussing over him. He didn't want anyone to know more than he was willing to share.

"Then, can I give you some advice, Echizen-kun?"

"…What is it?"

"If you have something to say, say it while you have the chance to. Otherwise, you'll regret it forever, I promise you that."

* * *

"15-0!"

"30-0!"

"Game, Tezuka, 4-4!"

"Tezuka! Tezuka! Tezuka!"

"Court 5! Court 5! Court 5!"

"What's going on here…" Ryoma peered around the corner of the wall, sporting the brown jacket with the hood over his head again. It served as a bit of a disguise for him, even though it kind of stood out amongst the white uniforms. He prayed that everyone would be too immersed in the match to notice him, which did seem to be the case. He sighed and sat down against the railing, feeling a burst of excitement as Tezuka served again. This was just the distraction he needed.

_But why would this be his last match…?_ he wondered, just as Yamato saw him from the court. He caught Ryoma's eye and winked, before turning away before anyone noticed.

"Tezuka-kun…" Yamato started, "I'm sure your presence will be greatly appreciated on the German team. You're finally on the road to freeing yourself…and becoming a professional player, just like you always wanted."

"Go for it, Tezuka!" Atobe yelled, smirking. "You're not the only one who can be a pillar!". Atobe smiled and held his arms out wide to indicate Court 5, soon to be Court 3. "I'll make sure we win! The winner will be Court 5!"

"Yeah, Tezuka-san!" Akaya cheered, having gotten over his fright from the day before to play his match with Shiraishi and win. He had tried extra hard that day because he had sworn, seriously _sworn_ that he had heard Sanada's 'tarundoru' the night before. "We'll definitely win! We've got this in the bag!"

"Yes, we'll win." a quiet voice declared, a familiar blond popping up behind Akaya.

"U-Uzauza!" Akaya yelped, jumping. "You're awake!"

"…It's 'Krauser', not…'Uzauza'." Liliadent said unhappily. "Is your English that bad? Try 'Liliadent' if it's too hard for you…"

"L…Lilylily?"

"Then…" Tezuka started, an all too familiar green glow beginning to surround him. "Will you all help me enjoy tennis?"

Ryoma shielded his eyes as a burst of green light exploded from Tezuka's side of the court, the signs of the open gate of the third pinnacle, certainly going past the boundaries of normal tennis.

"T-this is…" Shiraishi stammered, wincing as the pale green light grew stronger.

"Teni'muhou no kiwami!" Ryoma finished to himself, watching in awe.

"This is what Echizen did during the National Finals!" Akaya yelled. "Teni'muhou!"

"No, this aura is stronger…" Shiraishi replied, shaking his head. "I wonder why…"

"I've already finished everything I've set out to do." Tezuka announced, wearing the widest smile ever seen on his face. Fuji made a mental note to ask U-17 if he could have that precious footage of Tezuka smiling. Something like that was just priceless.

"I must catch up to him…" Kite vowed, watching awestruck as Tezuka dominated point after point with his newfound abilities. "I must…"

"We all knew this would happen eventually." Yukimura mused, chuckling. "This is Tezuka Kunimitsu. I would really love the opportunity to play him again one day…" He looked calm, but he laughed when he noticed he was shivering as well.

"Game and Match! Court 5, Tezuka Kunimitsu wins, 6-4!"

Ryoma smiled, feeling exhilarated from the match. Tezuka's aura not only influenced himself, but everyone in the crowd. Even most of the high schoolers were smiling and cheering with the middle schoolers, and Oni, Kanata and even Tokugawa looked impressed, and clapped politely.

"As expected of Tezuka-buchou."

But suddenly, he felt a feeling of awkward silence surrounding him, the kind that makes one feel that there's someone looking at them. He scanned the crowd carefully, praying he was wrong. But no, there really was someone in the crowd who had noticed him, and Ryoma felt his blood freeze as their eyes locked.

Kikumaru.

"Crap!" He cursed and turned swiftly before Kikumaru could get a good look at him, before shooting down the stairs. He knew Kikumaru had good eyesight (actually, 'good' was an understatement - both himself and Ryoma boasted the best eyesight on the tennis team.), and he hoped he hadn't seen him too well. If anyone saw him, there would be far more questions than he could answer. He huffed in annoyance as he was forced to leave the camp for fear of getting caught, making for the cover of the autumn trees.

A part of him had wanted the chance to speak to Tezuka one last time.

* * *

"Oh?" Kikumaru frowned, and arched his neck, craning it to get a better look. He saw a weird brown bundle of wool somewhere up behind the railing, and was trying to figure out whether or not it was a pile of laundry. "Could that be a person nya?" he murmured, turning around and poking Fuji. But just then, the bundle turned and the hood slightly shifted, revealing a pair of sharp golden eyes.

"What is it, Eiji?" Fuji asked, tilting his head. "Is there something wrong?"

"Fujiko, Fujiko, look over there!" Kikumaru urged frantically. "I think that's Ochi- eh?" He blinked a few times and looked around, but Ryoma had disappeared. "I thought…?"

Fuji chuckled. "Perhaps Tezuka's teni'muhou did something to your eyes." But even so, over Kikumaru's retort that he had the best eyesight on the team, he stole a quick glance at the railing just to see if anyone had actually been there. He had sworn he had heard Echizen's voice at some point, but Tezuka's teni'muhou had distracted him too much for him to have gotten a good look then, and too much for him to have remembered hearing his voice until Kikumaru had noticed him.

But now all that was left there was empty space.

_Just a trick of the wind, I suppose…_

* * *

"Great, time to get back…" Ryoma said to himself. He was feeling much better now that he had seen Tezuka, although he felt something slightly off deep inside him, like something was squeezing his chest, though he suspected part of it was from the adrenaline run. He stopped and leaned against a tree, sitting down to take a rest. He was at the foot of the mountains, and was sure he hadn't been followed. After Kikumaru had (kind of) seen him, Ryoma had run at full speed for a good five minutes. Ryoma closed his eyes and thought about what Yamato had told him right before he had left, the former captain of Seigaku having stopped him to tell him something.

_Flashback:_

"_Oh, wait Echizen-kun!" It was Yamato, walking towards him and fanning his face tiredly. "So you came." He smiled warmly. "Did you enjoy it? I'm quite proud of how the two of us performed, though it looks like I'm far out of Tezuka-kun's league by now." he finished, chuckling._

"_It was a great match." Ryoma replied, smiling. "Thanks for inviting me, I really enjoyed it."_

_"Yes, it was quite a fun match! Though I really didn't expect that teni'muhou to appear, but I should have known. It's Tezuka-kun, after all."_

_"You played well yourself, Yamato-san."_

"_It was a good retirement match..." Yamato said, not to Ryoma but more to himself. "I hope to see you soon then, Echizen-kun. Thank you very much, I appreciate you coming…" He paused, considering what to say next. He walked up to Ryoma, patting him on the shoulder._

"_Echizen-kun….Tezuka-kun's following the path he chose…it's not something I did. I hope you stay on the path you believe in, forever. But never forget that your friends are always on your side…as all paths have a puddle in them at some point…__and some paths may even end early."_

_Flashback End_

_So Tezuka –buchou's going to Germany, huh…._he thought, looking up as the fiery leaves gently fluttered down and letting his hood slip off his head. He shook his head, annoyed. He had thought he felt better, but the unsettling feeling in him was saying the opposite. He was beginning to feel _worse._

"Even though it's a good thing, I'm not-"

_-rustle..._

Ryoma's eyes widened as a figure walked up to him from behind, and held his breath. So he had been wrong, and someone had indeed followed him all the way. He narrowed his eyes and stood up, slowly turning to face the figure behind him. What he didn't expect was that the person had brown hair, glasses, and a Seigaku jersey.

"Tezuka-buchou?"

_To be continued_

**As for what's going on with Ryoma's memory, well, it'll be explained in a later chapter. But I'll just say, it's not as much as who he's trying to remember, but what he's trying to remember. Eh, not really. XP anyways, till the next chapter!**

**I just realized, Ryoma's white shirt would have been a better disguise than his brown sweater. Aw whatever...**

**There's a new plot taking place soon, next two/three chapters something kind of big will be introduced.**

**Please review, very much appreciated! Thanks for reading! You guys are awesome :D**

**I'm bored, time for a short omake.**

Omake

_One day, after practice at Seigaku, something was bothering Tezuka._

"Echizen…"

Ryoma looked up from a mountain of tennis balls he was counting. "U-isuu, buchou?"

"Well…actually…."

"Buchou?"

Tezuka sighed and sat down next to Ryoma. "I have something serious I want to talk about."

"…what is it, buchou?" Ryoma asked, returning the serious look. Tezuka hesitated before he saw Ryoma's strong gaze, lightened by the gleam in his golden eyes. He took a deep breath, summoning his wits.

"When we're in high school, will you still call me 'buchou'? I mean, surely you can call me 'Tezuka-san', or 'Tezuka'…maybe…even 'Kunimitsu'." he said briskly, sweat-dropping as Ryoma gave him a look of disbelief.

Ryoma cocked his head. "...What about 'Mitzu'?"

"NO!"

"Hmm, then 'Tezu-chan'?"

"Echizen…."

Ryoma smirked. "Well then, buchou will always be buchou!"

"In 30 years, will you still call me 'Tezuka-buchou' everywhere?"

"…."


	10. Because bonds can never be broken

**hi! I'm back from Las Vegas, as hot as they say (I got attacked by a hair dryer – that's my new name for the wind in Las Vegas.)! Relaxed when I came back for way too long, then spent some time on this chapter and chapter 11 (which is almost done).**

**FYI, in my fanfic, Ryoma didn't go to America after Nationals. I know some people may not like that, but...I didn't see a reason to Ryoma leaving after Nationals, and…this**_** is**_** a fanfic XD**

**I do have a reason for why he was late to the camp, however. Explanations later~**

**This chapter is a long, _long_ conversation. Like blah blah blah...I wanted to make them get up and run around at some point, they must have been so stiff. (Ryoma: "Hell yeah we were!") You can skip it if you want, and go to the AN at the bottom of the chapter to pick up the summary of the chapter (don't ask if I'm serious. I don't know). I tried to not make it all conversation, but it didn't really work...**

**DISCLAIMER: Don't own p.o.t., never will**

**This chapter's full of cheese XP cheesy warning~**

Chapter ten: Because bonds can never be broken

_Right after Ryoma left Kabuto at the clearing:_

"I can't believe it..."

Kabuto sat down against the door of the shed, head in his knees, exhausted. He was slowly learning that talking to Ryoma would be much harder than he expected. Every conversation with him was turning out to be a new adventure. One day he was friendly enough (well, as friendly as the cocky first year could be), the other a word would barely come out of his mouth. Not that he had ever expected it to be easy, but...

"Geh…" Kabuto muttered. "That little brat's so sensitive…"

"You aren't any better."

"Yugito." Kabuto looked up as the red headed high schooler approached him and sat down, plucking a leaf off a branch and twirling it around listlessly. They were close friends, and could be counted on to always choose each other as partners during practice.

"It's time for practice, the coach is back." Yugito started, tossing up the leaf. "Not that he really noticed you were gone. He told me to round up all the high schoolers that weren't there and to scale another waterfall. This one's real big!" he said cheerfully, putting on a bunny face. "Like a 20 story building!" He paused, keeping up the sparkling lights and waiting for a reaction.

"I don't care."

"So moody!" Yugito groaned, slapping Kabuto on the back. "You won't get stronger at this rate." he pointed out, shooting Kabuto a meaningful look. "You're like everyone else right…? Crazy for tennis?" Yugito rolled his eyes as Kabuto ignored him. "Che, you're so unpredictable…immature one day then serious as ever the next."

"Leave me alone, for god's sake." Kabuto sighed, leaning back against the tree. "Don't you have better things to do, like scale a 20 story building?"

"…I see," Yugito replied, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "You must be going through a 'stage' in life…hmm, was it called menopause or something? No, that's for women, what am I saying. It was pre-menopause for men, right?"

_-BONK! _"That's overdone, you idiot!"

"AGH! Joke, it's was a joke!" Yugito yelped, massaging a large bump that was now sprouting from his forehead and tearing up. "But you know, it's like, '_men_'opause, right? _Men?" _He quickly ducked as Kabuto took another swing at him. "Sorry!" Yugito yelped. "Couldn't help it!"

"You know," Kabuto started, ignoring Yugito. "He looked annoyed. I think he doesn't like me."

"Who? Echizen Ryoma?"

"Who else?"

"Echizen Ryoma keeps his feelings in check, don't you know that?" Yugito replied. "I don't think he's the type to get mad over someone who asks him if he's ok. Maybe you'd do that, but not him."

As Yugito continued to massage yet another bump on his now very battered and bruised head, Kabuto took the time to get up and peer into the locked shed curiously. He had seen Ryoma trying to peek in there too. It was the mystery shed.

"The middle schoolers combined are stronger than the high schoolers combined…I think." Yugito continued, laughing. "What's happening in this world? The high schoolers are getting their butts kicked by middle schoolers! I don't see the middle school conspiracy anywhere else!"

"Speaking of middle schoolers, Yugito…Do I try too hard?" Kabuto murmured, not looking up. "Er, I mean…"

"Obviously."

"Love you too!" Kabuto wailed, punching him right on the spot with the bump. "This is the part where you say, 'No, you're just trying to do what you think is best! Go onto the path you choose, both for your happiness and the happiness of the person most precious to you!' Something like that, maybe with a little more cheese so I can laugh at you!" he huffed, plopping back down with his arms crossed.

Yugito rolled his eyes. "I didn't say trying too hard was a bad thing you maniac." he scoffed. "Che, that pathetic wailing...Now that's the Kabuto I know and love." His face softened and he gently patted Kabuto on the back. "There's nothing wrong with trying your hardest, especially since it's for a good cause."

"…Thanks. That was better. Needs some improvements though."

"Now that's the Kabuto I know and _hate!"_ Yugito snapped, tick throbbing steadily on his head. "But…" he started, growing serious. "I think…slowly but surely, you're getting results. I just don't know if they're the ones _he_ wants."

"Alright then, I'm going to the coach." Kabuto replied, walking away from the shed and making his way out. "Coming?"

"Eh?" Yugito started. "But-"

"I need to ask him something. I've been putting it off for a while."

* * *

_Previously:_

_Ryoma's eyes widened as a figure walked up to him from behind, and held his breath. So he had been wrong, and someone had indeed followed him all the way. He narrowed his eyes and stood up, slowly turning to face the figure behind him. What he didn't expect was that the person had brown hair, glasses, and a Seigaku jersey._

"_Tezuka-buchou?"_

Present:

"Tezuka-buchou?"

Ryoma turned around to face Tezuka completely, not believing his eyes. "How did you know…"

"Yamato-buchou told me you were here." Tezuka replied, smiling. There were still flecks of light around him from his teni'muhou aura, and Ryoma could feel the sense of peace and happiness within him. He practically _radiated_ it. It was no surprise that he was still smiling too, and though it was small, it was his kindest smile yet. Ryoma knew it wasn't just from the teni'muhou.

"What happened to you during the elimination matches?" Tezuka continued. "You went missing all of a sudden. We all looked for you, but I'm sorry we…"

"I got lost."

"…" Tezuka knew it was anything but the truth, but he kept silent.

"So…congratulations." Ryoma continued, not knowing what else to say. "I…that was a great match, buchou." He stopped, looking away. Though he had wanted to see Tezuka at first, something in his mind told him it was time for him to leave. He had taken long enough as is, and he really didn't want to go past his time limit. Also...

"Thank you." Tezuka replied quietly, gazing at Ryoma intently. Ryoma shuffled his feet, slightly uneasy. Everyone had a way of intimidating people, and captain stares happened to be Tezuka's.

"I should get going now." Ryoma said, turning away to leave. "You need to go too, right? You wouldn't want to miss your flight. Oh, we're training on the mountains, everyone who lost." He smirked at the rare look of surprise on Tezuka's face. His teammates had been right next door the whole time and the captain hadn't even known it.

"See you, buchou! I'll tell the others if you want me to." Not waiting for a reply, he waved and started off.

"Echizen, wait."

Ryoma paused, surprised. Tezuka looked apologetic, and a little bit regretful.

"So you know about…" he trailed off, looking slightly pained. Although he had made his decision, it still hurt to tell his teammates that he wouldn't be on the court with them again the following year. Or any of the ones after.

"Yeah." Ryoma replied. He tried to look like he normally did – calm and composed. "That's why I said you shouldn't miss your flight. Germany, right? It's a good thing you speak German. Then again, I'm sure English would have been alright too, or maybe…" He stopped and sweat-dropped as Tezuka was giving him the soul-penetrating captain stare again.

_Right, I'm talking too much. Why in the world am I acting like this? It's not the last time. It's a great thing for Tezuka-buchou. So why?_

_Flashback:_

"_If you have something to say, say it while you have the chance to. Otherwise, you'll regret it forever, I promise you that."_

_Kabuto-san's right..._

"…Tezuka-buchou." Ryoma started, looking him in the eye. "So you're really leaving."

"I would have had more time, but I just played a match against Fuji, to be honest…" Tezuka replied, missing the point.

"What…" Ryoma said, startled. He couldn't stop his eyebrows from rising in surprise. _How long was that match, one minute?_ he thought, sweat-dropping again as Tezuka looked back at him modestly. Tezuka had somehow said goodbye to everyone at the courts, played Fuji, and caught up to Ryoma in about 15 minutes. Ryoma wasn't sure if this was the teni'muhou talking or not. It had been a long run!

Tezuka smiled. "The loss will do Fuji good…However, we didn't play a full match. Even _I _can't beat Fuji in four minutes. I worry though, he's always saying that he'll never lose to the same opponent twice..."

"….." _Ok ok, so they played a four minute match._ Ryoma thought wearily, feeling sorry for Fuji. Tezuka seemed to be the one opponent Fuji lost to more than once. What Tezuka forgot to mention, and what Ryoma found out later, was that it was simply a one point rally.

"Echizen, why don't we take a seat? I have a bit of time, so we can talk for a few minutes before I leave." Tezuka motioned to a patch of soft green grass underneath a tree with beautiful tinted red leaves. It looked tempting, but Ryoma had a bad feeling. The sky was slowly turning gray, and it looked like it would snow. For some reason, that made him want to leave as soon as possible.

"Come on, Echizen."

"…" Ryoma was still uncertain, so Tezuka threw out his bait.

"I have a Ponta."

"..."

"I also have a voucher for an all-you-can-eat at a steakhouse in Tokyo that you can have."

* * *

_3 minutes and one Ponta later:_

"Good?"

"Yeah, domo. Can I really have this?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm leaving Japan, anyways."

"You know," Ryoma started, putting down his near-finished can of Ponta with a content sigh and sticking the voucher in his pocket. "I wasn't supposed to stay in Japan for so long…I was surprised that I was even allowed to come to the camp." he finished, keeping a casual tone.

"What do you mean?" Tezuka asked.

"Well..."

_Flashback:_

"_Ohayo, ka-san…" _

_Ryoma stood in the doorway wearing his Seigaku uniform, for once an uncertain expression on his face. It was three days after the National Finals, after Seigaku's victory against Rikkaidai, and after the lavish celebrations and festivities of their win (Atobe had contributed – that's how lavish the parties had become), all the teams had gone back to their respectives cities and things were back to normal…well, almost normal. His mother was in the middle of packing clothes into a bulging suitcase that was attempting to resist every effort to feed it, meant for his parents' move to America…and his own._

_Rinko blinked, surprised, and let go of the suitcase she was fighting. This was one 'case' she was losing against. "Ryoma, why are you wearing your uniform?" she asked suspiciously. "I thought you weren't going to school today! You need to pack for America! Sure, we're not selling the house because of Nanako-chan, but you shouldn't leave too much here."_

"_W-well…" Ryoma stammered, trying to remember the speech he had prepared. "I want to stay in Japan." he said bluntly._

_Rinko blanched. "You've put off going back there ever since those District Preliminaries! 3 months, Ryoma, 3 months late! Why are you still putting it off?" she groaned, putting a hand to her head in exasperation._

"_Yes…but…I want to finish the year now…" Ryoma muttered, looking down. "At least the year…I mean, it would be a wast-"_

"_Ryoma, you've given me the same kind of excuse for the past few months!" Rinko snapped, losing her temper by the second. "You were only supposed to stay here for a few weeks, not a few months! We all told you not to get attached to anyone here!" she yelled. _

"_Can't I at least finish this year?" Ryoma pleaded. "I would leave right after-"_

"_Are you kidding me? Be reasonable, this is impossible."_

"_Ka-san, -"_

"_We were already quite generous with letting you stay for a few months. Like I said, you weren't supposed to stay long..." Rinko's face softened slightly as Ryoma fell silent, refusing to meet her eyes. She felt her heart melt as she gently pulled him towards her and hugged him, stroking her son's hair tenderly. _

"_Ryoma, please understand. We're not trying to make you leave…we love you so very much, your father and I. But I feel horrible for the friends you left behind in America…They were very close to you. You just left America like that, so abruptly…You didn't even see most of them, let alone say good bye. Even now, I'm sure they're still thinking of you…"_

"_But I haven't been thinking about them back!" Ryoma snapped, glaring. He instantly stopped and apologized, face flushed. It was a sensitive subject, his time in America. He was cruel, he knew it all too well._

"_You see what I mean, Ryoma? It's not your fault what happened a few months back, but you still need to settle things down there."_

_Flashback End_

"...Echizen?"

"…I was supposed to go back to America after the Nationals. To live there, I mean." he started. "Not just visit."

"But you didn't…" Tezuka finished.

"I had wanted to at least finish the year here. Besides…nothing waited for me back in America." Ryoma said slowly, face clouding over. "I managed to convince ka-san to let me stay and finish the year…it was hard though, she's a lawyer, so she's stubborn!" He almost laughed as he remembered the grueling process of convincing Takeuchi Rinko to do something other than what she felt was right. Simply put, it had been a long, _long_, night.

"Was that a good thing?" Tezuka asked.

"I…don't regret staying at all." Ryoma replied nonchalantly, coaxing the last few drops out of his Ponta. "I had fun."

"Echizen…is there something else you want to tell me?" Tezuka probed.

"Did I say something?"

"Well, how do I say this…" Tezuka started. "There's something you've hidden from everyone this whole time…"

"Something I've hidden? What are you talking about? You're saying weird things, Tezuka-buchou." Ryoma replied, keeping a smirk on his face. "After effects of teni'muhou? That was great, while I'm saying it. Hmm, don't you think it's going to snow soon?" Ryoma asked, pointing to the rapidly graying sky. "It's quite an early snowfall, in my opin-"

"Don't change the subject."

Ryoma's cocky demeanor faltered before falling completely as Tezuka gave him a stern look, one he had seen so many times in the past, but had never quite been related to anything other than tennis. Tezuka was usually more interested in helping Ryoma become the pillar of Seigaku, so he didn't get why Tezuka was interested in otherwise now.

"I could see it from the moment I first saw you, Echizen." he continued. "Even now, you're hiding it. I understand if you're not comfortable with saying anything, but…you lost something precious to you, didn't you?"

Ryoma was momentarily confused before the realization dawned on him, though he hid it. He shook his head. "Heh, I acted perfectly normal. Are you sure you think I'm missing something?" he mused. "Say, it's too bad we couldn't play a match-"

"It was your eyes, Echizen. Your eyes had an empty soul in them."

"…." Ryoma fell silent for a moment, giving Tezuka a look of disbelief. "For a guess, that's a lot you're accusing of me." he shot back. "How can you tell my eyes looked empty? From my point of view, eyes all look the same! I can't just see determination or sadness in them! They all look the _same._"

Tezuka sighed and patted Ryoma's head to calm him down. "Well, if not that, then there's the fact that you're speaking so much. You only do that when you're worked up, which my mentioning of…" he stopped, not wanting to anger Ryoma further.

"Can't anyone leave me alone?" Ryoma groaned, pushing himself away from Tezuka. He looked annoyed, but he also had a look of resignation on his face. It was a losing battle for him.

"Sorry, Echizen." Tezuka said, sighing. "I'm prying far too much. It's just that I'm your captain, and I can't leave you alone as long as we're on the same team." he said firmly.

"Trust you to say something like that." Ryoma scoffed, but he couldn't help but smile.

"You didn't smile for a while. And you were always hiding things from everyone. When we laughed, you didn't laugh with us." Tezuka said quietly.

"You have absolutely no right to talk about laughing, buchou." Ryoma said, smirking as Tezuka was left without an answer.

"Echizen, please stop contradicting everything I say." Tezuka said, though he was smiling. "But...I couldn't figure out why you were so distant, even after some weeks passed. I mean, you did get involved in activites with the team, but..." Tezuka started, leaning against the tree and looking up at the leaves. "I simply decided it was just your personality, keeping to yourself with an arrogant outside. And soon, you became part of the team."

"…Did that change?" Ryoma asked.

"You smile more…" Tezuka commented.

"I don't smile, I smirk. At least, that's what everyone says." Ryoma retorted, pulling down his cap out of habit. "Oh yeah, so do my eyes look different now? Have they changed color or something?"

Tezuka chuckled. "We both know the answer to that…but you still haven't said anything about what you lost. There's a lot we don't know about you, Echizen…We've been through a lot together, on this team, yet you never opened up about yourself. For one thing, we were quite shocked when we saw you had a brother, as you told us you were an only child back in the beginning."

"Eh...r-right..." _That's because I didn't know I had one in the first place!_ Ryoma wanted to yell, though he kept his mouth shut. He wanted nothing more than to leave, though Kabuto's words and the fact that his captain was leaving for Germany and wasn't exactly coming back for a while rooted him to the spot.

"_If you have something to say, say it while you have the chance to."_

"Ryoma, you can trust me. Tell me what happened." Tezuka urged gently.

Ryoma took a deep breath, deciding to follow the voice in his heart rather than the voice in his mind. "Before I came to Seigaku, I lost all of my memories…I don't even remember what happened."

"You lost your memories…" Tezuka said, stunned.

"All of them. Every single piece of my memories. I didn't even remember my name. When I woke up, everything was a blank." Ryoma shrugged, looking away. "It's not a big deal, I managed to get accustomed after a few weeks."

Tezuka continued to stare, unable to think of something to say. Although he could feel something had happened, he hadn't expected it to be that big. He didn't know whether to apologize, whether to assure him that he would one day remember, or whether to change the subject. But as he looked at Ryoma's strong gaze, he realized that speaking to him about the seemingly painful subject wouldn't be a problem.

"All this time, you haven't remembered a thing?"

"Nothing. Oh, I've remembered a few things here and there, but they're all tiny fragments." Ryoma said quietly. "I remembered Ryoga too, if you were wondering, because of that orange he was eating..."

"But National Finals, that incident…" Tezuka put in, remembering the time Ryoma lost his memories right before his match against Yukimura.

"I only lost and regained the memories from my time with Seigaku. But now…I'm starting to…almost remember things more here. Ever since I got here, everything and anything triggers something. Stupid U-17 camp..."

"Almost?"

"I don't want to remember." Ryoma looked pained. Although he didn't say it, the subject was hurting him. "I don't know if I was always like this, I don't know if this is who I am." He paused, taking a breath. "So I try to block it all out. But that makes it hurt." He put his head on his knees, which had never stopped throbbing since the incident with the Sportsman Hunt. "I have headaches all the time now."

Tezuka patted Ryoma on the back, rubbing it soothingly. "Echizen, I firmly believe that no matter what, everything will be alright."

"People die every day from things like accidents. I don't think things turn out 'all right' for them. Why would I be any different?" Ryoma replied skeptically. There was an awkward pause as Tezuka's glasses gleamed over so his eyes weren't visible, pondering on what to say next.

"Because you have so many people who care for you." Tezuka answered. "Everyone will always accept you for you who are, no matter what you're like, now, in the past, or even in the future."

"Are you saying if I become a criminal, they'll still accept me?"

"Echizen."

"J-joke!"

They stayed silent for a while, listening to the soft wind as it rustled playfully around the leaves, weaving between them without a care in the world. They were both thinking about their own thoughts, and how they had never had a chance to talk about much other than tennis to each other. Most things they had talked about were new tennis moves, strong opponents, and pillars. Was that all they were? Friends who were simply friends because they both felt the same thrill when they picked up a racket? Tennis buddies? They couldn't help but wonder.

Tezuka looked at his watch. "I need to get going soon."

"I know." Ryoma replied. He suddenly remembered something he had had on his mind for a long time. "While I'm using up all my talking time for the year, can I say one more thing?"

"Be my guest." Tezuka replied, smiling.

"Sometimes, I wish there was another National tournament for us to look forward to…and I mean all of us."

"I…I paid lots of attention to every passing day," Ryoma continued. "I thought about how it hurt that there wouldn't be a next year, a next year where we would play in a tournament together again. I..." he looked away as he blushed slightly. "loved how we all cheered when we won, how we gave each other advice and comfort when we lost. I loved how we all held the trophy together, how we all placed it on the showcase shelf together…It won't happen again."

"What do you mean?"

"Basically speaking, all the third years are leaving… I always thought that we would be able to repeat this perfect team in high school, three years later, but…I was wrong, wasn't I." He didn't need to look at Tezuka for an answer. They already knew it well.

"…Oishi-sempai's not going to the high school division of Seigaku because he wants to become a doctor, Kawamura-sempai's going to drop tennis for cooking, and you…you're going to Germany…and this time…" Ryoma didn't finish, but he could hear the unspoken words clearly in his mind that he couldn't bear to accept.

_This time, you're not coming back._

"I'm sorry." Tezuka said, letting out a sigh. "I should have discussed this-"

"What are you talking about, buchou?" Ryoma retorted, making a face. "This is what Yamato-san talked about. Make your own decisions, don't think about the others." He sighed. "I'm not asking you to stay…I'm just saying goodbye."

"..."

Ryoma stretched out his arms, feeling happier because of their talk. "So," Ryoma continued, smiling as he turned towards Tezuka. "I guess what I'm saying is-"

Ryoma's eyes widened and he stopped as Tezuka gently pulled him into a hug.

"I'm going to miss you too, Echizen."

"I'm going to miss you, Tezuka-buchou…" Ryoma murmured, relaxing and returning the hug. This was one side of Tezuka that no one ever got to see. He rested his head lightly on Tezuka's shoulder for a minute, but then knew Tezuka's time was up. They pulled away and stood up, blushing slightly. Ryoma pulled the cap over his face, willing it to not embarrass him by turning even redder.

"Although they won't be attending the school anymore, Oishi and the others will still visit." Tezuka reminded him, smiling. "They can come to afterschool practice, and morning practice too if they want. I'm sure they will come as often as they can. And don't forget, there are still some members that will remain at Seigaku."

"You mean Momo-sempai and Kaido-sempai?"

"Yes." Tezuka replied. "I'm counting on you to make sure they behave…I give you the right to assign them laps if they argue on the court." he said, gleam in his eyes. "100 max, though."

"Buchou, they can work pretty well together at times, but I'll definitely keep that in mind." Ryoma said, unable to resist grinning at the thought of giving his best friend laps. He hoped they would argue as often as possible now.

"That's true, but some things never change…" Tezuka whispered.

"Some things never change, huh…"

"Yes, some things will never change, Echizen. No matter what happens, we will always be Seigaku, and we will always be connected by tennis."

With that, Tezuka Kunimitsu slowly turned and began walking down the path, in the opposite direction that Ryoma was going. He didn't say another word, he just kept walking.

He didn't turn around.

Not once.

Perhaps he was afraid.

Afraid of destroying his resolve.

As snowflakes began to fall from the graying sky, Ryoma could hear the Tezuka's words echoing through his mind. Ryoma smirked and pulled the rim of his hat off and let his emerald tinted hair catch the white dancing flakes as he said one last thing to Tezuka.

"Buchou! I can't believe I almost forgot to say this, but…I'm Seigaku's pillar of strength, right? You can count on me! I'll be waiting for our next match!" Ryoma knew instinctively, that the two had just realized, after 3 months, that they were truly friends. He should never have doubted it.

Tezuka kept on walking.

But, he turned.

Once.

One last time.

Then he was gone.

_Owari_

* * *

**So, summary:**

**(sorry, such a long conversation! Forgive meeee...*bows* also, forgive me for that random word pun with the suitcase XD couldn't resist.)**

**Basically, Kabuto's sulking, Yugito goes comforting him, and Tezuka and Ryoma talk. Then Tezuka's off to Germany! Ryoma also reveals that he lost his memories right before he came to Seigaku for the first time. Ryoma gets a flashback too. Not a memory one, a flashback of right after Nationals.**

**Kabuto's an OC, but he's a nice guy, so I'm going to post his own little character profile on my profile (Kabuto: "YAY~!" *dances*)**

**Though I don't know if it's likely, who knows, maybe the perfect team will be reunited again one day in high school to play in the Nationals once more… who knows… **

**Everyone was so interested in the leaves this chapter XD I couldn't make them do anything else since all they could do was chat lol.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	11. On a snowy day

**Hello, I'm back…I actually started this before I finished chapter 10, cuz I had already put chapter 10 into the Doc Manager and such…and I was too lazy to sign in…ah ha ha… XP. Anyways, chapter 11, here it is!**

**This chapter got long again…Actually, I think this is the longest chapter yet.**

**DISCLAIMER: Don't own prince of tennis! If I did, the anime would still be going on XP Wait, do I really need to do disclaimers every single chapter…? This is a fanfiction site, so it's kinda obvious…ah screw it all XP**

**Hope you enjoy! Please review! Reviews are greatly appreciated :D**

Chapter 11: On a snowy day

_Previously:_

"_I firmly believe that no matter what happens, everything will be alright. We will always be connected by tennis."_

_Tezuka looked back._

_Once more._

_Then he was gone._

_Present:_

Ryoma was walking slowly back to the mountains after his conversation with Tezuka. He breathed in the frosty air and exhaled, forming misty white clouds in the gray sky. He was still thinking about what Tezuka had said.

_Tezuka-buchou always knows what to say..._ Ryoma mused, grinning. _Well, he is buchou, so I guess it makes sense._

He thought back to what had happened with his mother.

_Flashback:_

"_You see what I mean, Ryoma? Even though none of this was your fault, you should still settle things down back there…"_

_Ryoma frowned, pulling away from Rinko. "What am I even supposed to do, waltz in front of them and say hi?"_

_Rinko pondered on the thought for a moment. "Well…" she finally started. "I think you could…start by seeing that Kevin Smith. It's been a while, and perhaps he'll know some of your old friends. I'll give you a list of all their names, how about that?" She grabbed a piece of paper and began writing. "__Adrian…Alexander…who else…" She muttered, biting her lip in concentration. "There was a Chris too, and a Ricky… Jeremy, right? Hmm, I believe, but their names also have a-"_

"_Ka-san" Ryoma interrupted. "I don't think first names are good enough. I highly doubt Kevin will know exactly who you're talking about just by a first name. He'll think I'm mental. He already does because I keep forgetting to email him."_

"_Right, right." Rinko replied, laughing. "Problem is, I don't quite know their last names."_

"_Great, then there's no need to go." Ryoma said quickly, turning to make his escape._

"_Not so fast, mister." Rinko sighed, shooting him a look. _

"_Ka-san, I don't remember them!" Ryoma pointed out._

"…_You're right." Rinko sighed again, leaning against the table wearily. "Ok, ok, you've worn me down. Go there for…a little bit then."_

_Ryoma's eyes lit up. "Really? So how long, exactly?"_

"_As long as it takes to find them. I don't know, at least say hi…"_

"_One week's more than enough, then!" Ryoma grinned. He tried not to show it, but he wasn't planning on hunting down people in New York anytime soon. "So then…I can…finish the year here?" he asked hopefully._

"_Fine, but don't go making trouble! And you'd better tie up the loose ends! I'll call Kevin and make sure! And don't you dare ask for this again after the year ends!" she said warningly. It could have been in Latin though, as Ryoma was far too ecstatic to listen._

"_Arigato, ka-san!"_

_Flashback end_

So on the end of the third day after the National Finals, Ryoma had gone to America. He hadn't told his teammates, hadn't even bothered to leave a note to anyone. Ryoma had simply left his folded jersey on the clubroom's table and left. He hadn't wanted to leave his jersey, but he had to be safe (though when he got back he had just about gotten killed by the regulars who had died from worry when Ryoma disappeared off the face of the earth.)

After a single week in America, and a few days of listless rallying with Kevin (who had first yelled at him for not keeping in touch at all. Ryoma couldn't help it, he had trouble with that kind of stuff.) and training with his new-found friend Ken (not to mention kicking the butts of some random American high schoolers), Ryoma hadn't found a single lead on his former friends. He couldn't remember them at all.

It wasn't that he hadn't tried. He really had. Ryoma had asked Kevin if he knew if any people in New York were named "Chris" and "Alexander" and all he had gotten in response was a strange look from Kevin. He wasn't in any hurry to restart the search again.

"Come to think of it," Ryoma said to himself, "ka-san never actually called Kevin…in fact, she never called at all. Weird...I should have called instead, but…"

_I knew exactly what she would ask me first._

Ryoma sighed, and looked around at the snow. It was the first snow he ever remembered, yet it felt all too familiar. Ryoma slowly extended his hand, feeling the same thrill when they brushed his fingers as when he was playing tennis. He smiled through the slight sadness that the nostalgia of the strange white snow brought.

"It's cold…" he whispered, watching the fat flakes melt on his fingers. By now the sky was full of snowflakes, swirling and dancing, though looking a little odd against the autumn leaves. It really was indeed an early snowfall. Ryoma couldn't help but smile.

"So this is snow…huh…"

For the first time in a long time, he was feeling normal again.

* * *

Back in U-17, Atobe and Kanata's match had long started.

The match was in full gear now, the snow not slowing them down in their tracks at all. Before they knew it, the match had ended in a no game, and the courts were covered in a thin layer of fresh powder. Of course, that didn't stop Oni from demolishing his poor opponent from Court 3, leading Court 5, with the middle schoolers, to victory. After the cheers and congratulations, there was an annoucement that due to the snow, outdoor practice was suspended for the rest of the day.

Not ones to neglect practice though, the players all retreated inside to try out the new shiny exercise machines that they had been eyeing ever since they got there, and to maybe soak in a steamy bath or watch a movie, curled up in a warm blanket. Maybe make a cup of hot chocolate too. There were lots to do and even more to explore. Everyone was almost happy for the practice suspension.

However, things were a little different up on the mountain.

When it snows on a mountain, it _snows_. A lot. By the time Ryoma returned, the snow was almost ankle deep, and it looked like it was only going to get heavier. Like at U-17, all of the practices had been cut short by the snow. However, all the players, high schoolers and middle schoolers alike, in their shorts and t-shirts, were literally freezing to death.

Fortunately though, Coach Nyudo had actually been considerate enough to provide long white pants and white sweaters for the middle schoolers and long black pants and black sweaters for the high schoolers. It was another unexpected show of kindness that made everyone wonder if Coach Nyudo actually had a heart under all that concrete, yelling, and alcohol.

The one thing he couldn't provide though, was something to do.

It wasn't that Coach Nyudo didn't have ideas for practice (the slave driver always had new ideas for tormenting them) – it was just that it was far too dangerous, as it was getting slippery. The rivers were freezing cold, so those weren't an option, and no tree was safe, as they all had a slippery frosty coating. The branches also acted like little death nets, holstering each a mini mountain of snow just waiting to bury someone alive. Even a simple run was out of the question.

Another danger was the cliffs. Snow, cliffs, climbing, and no-harnesses-or-safety-precautions-of-any-kind do _not_ mix. Also, no one wanted to go back into the cave. It was already cold in there all the time without the snow fall's help, but now it brought a whole new meaning to the word "cold". It was more like a deep freeze than a cave. Besides, there was nothing more to do in the cave other than explore. And after Kenya had told them the stories of the bats (exaggerated a little bit) no one was keen on doing that.

So rather than dying from the cold, they were going to die from boredom.

Except, the middle schoolers found the obvious solution.

Gathered out in front of the now frozen waterfall at the cooking clearing (that was one thing though, the waterfall looked absolutely stunning frozen), out of all of the middle schoolers it was Kintaro who thought up the idea first. It was now empty, as all the cooking supplies had been hurriedly brought into the shed, making for the perfect stage.

Kintaro grinned mischievously and bent down, out of everyone's sight, and began scooping snow up into a ball, packing it quietly while everyone else shivered in their thin sweaters, unaware of the danger.

"Hee hee hee…" He carefully took aim at the biggest and most tempting target, Tanishi's butt, slowly bringing his arm back.

_-WHAM!_

"WAAAAH!" Kintaro yelped, springing away as Momo doubled over laughing, having shot a snowball right into Kintaro's hair as he was distracted.

"Gotcha, Kintaro!" Momo chorused, still laughing. This, of course, initiated a full blown snowball fight, and it was everyone for themselves!

"Hmm," Inui started excitedly, opening his notebook. "Chances of a snowball fight-"

_-WHAM!_

"Chances of a snowball fight…130%...is what you were going to say." Renji said triumphantly, smiling as he stood over a dripping wet Inui, having nailed him in the glasses.

"In a situation like this, I mustn't panic…" Oishi murmured, taking account of the situation rapidly. "Let's see, lie low and wait for an opening…" He crouched down behind a tree, making sure to watch his back. Kintaro still had ice crystals in his hair from Momo's attack.

"…Now! Moon volley!"

The snowball soared over out of sight until it slowly fell back down, targeting Zaizen. At the last moment though, Zaizen saw it and jumped away. "Gotta do better than that, Oishi-san!" he laughed, shooting a snowball at Oishi. "It's gotta be fast and direct!"

"**FAST AND DIRECT?** **YOU'LL GET THAT,** **BABY!** MOREZORE, _**BURNING!**__"_ Everyone instinctively covered their heads and leaped for cover as Taka exploded into flames of passion and fury (though he wasn't holding a racket. Apparently snow sets him off too). Taka's snowball hadokyou then proceeded to slam into Tanishi's butt, causing him to howl in pain.

"WAAAGH! W-W-WHAT THE HELL!" Tanishi snarled, angrily packing his snowball as firmly as he could and slamming it into a Big Bang serve. It somehow stayed intact long enough to hit Koharu right in the chest.

"Y-YU-KUN~!" Koharu wailed as he soared through the air. He hurriedly made kissing noises and heart signs. "I LOVE YOU~!"

"K-Koharu!" Yuuji yelled, rushing to save his lover. "Don't worry! I'm coming to save yo-"

_-WHAM!_

_-BAM!_

Everyone winced as Koharu, along with Yuuji, flew backwards and rammed into a tree, dislodging some snow off its branches and causing a mini avalanche on the two.

"My sempais are idiots…" Zaizen sighed, shaking his head. "Some day, some day they're gonna do something embarrassing and I'm just going to walk away whistling innocently as if I don't know the weirdos."

"I'm with you!" Kenya yelled back.

_So much for team spirit..._Momo thought, sweat-dropping.

Everyone else paused, taking load of the situation. By now, most people had gone around in a messy circle, and were looking every which way. Anyone who wasn't was hiding, not wanting to risk their lives.

"Time out, let's take a time out!" Yuuta suggested. "That was way too unexpected."

"Yeah, yeah, let's!" Jackal agreed, cautiously appearing from his hiding spot behind a tree, relieved.

"But what for?" Momo asked, punching his palm with his fist excitedly. "Let's just keep going!"

"Charging around like a crazy ape, you baka!" Kaido snapped back. "Don't you know when to stop?!"

"I'm not done doing crazy yet!" Momo yelled, grabbing Kaido's collar.

"That's because you're always insane, bastard!"

"WHAT-"

"Save it! Please!" Oishi said nervously, going between the two.

"Pupina. Let's group up." Niou replied, smiling as he turned into Atobe. "Ore-sama won't lose to you peasants! Kabaji, go make me a mountain of snowballs!" Atobe/Niou smirked and nodded at Kabaji.

"…Usu."

"That's not fair! You practically have a snowball machine!" Kintaro whined.

"Well, Atobe _is_ the ice King, so I guess it's fitting." Gakuto said, shrugging. "I wouldn't be surprised if Atobe brought a tank to a snowball fight! (ok, maybe a little...)"

"Ahn? You're complaining? How pathetic!" Atobe/Niou replied, smirking. "Whatever, it's a decent excuse for when you lose to Ore-sama."

"I won't lose! Kenya, Kenyaaa~ Let's partner up!" Kintaro yelled, competition spark in his eyes.

Shinji decided to take the chance to pair up with Zaizen, while Inui and Renji paired up, despite Renji's previous attack on Inui. Then Koharu and Yuuji had to be dragged off the scene (they were both unconscious) and Jackal and Kai paired up as well. From there on, everyone else paired up until everyone was in a group of either two or three.

"Kenya-san, I'm going for you next!" Momo called, running after Kenya.

"Don't underestimate the Speed Star of Naniwa!" Kenya warned, grinning as he easily zipped away from Momo. "Ha ha-"

_-WHAM!_

"AAAAAGH! COLD!" Kenya yelped.

"And don't underestimate Kaido Kaoru! Fsssshhh…."

"Nice one, Mamushi!" Momo gave a thumbs up to Kaido, his new found partner (shockingly), who in return huffed and looked away, having achieved his goal of giving Kenya a face wash with a snake shot and stalking off in search of another target.

Meanwhile, Tanishi had gone up into a tree with a pile of snow balanced on its branches. When his target walked under it, he jumped onto the branch, causing the tree to sway dangerously and the snow to slide off and onto his target, in this case an unlucky Harukaze.

"AAAH-" Harukaze was cut off as a mountain of snow fell on him, arms flailing. Beside him,

"Gekokujou!"

Wakashi was making good use of his dojo skills to expertly dodge every snowball that came his way, while his partner, Gakuto, used his Moonsaults to do the same. Their attack partner, Yuuta, was in charge of beaming their enemies as they were distracted by Gakuto's flying.

The Emperor of Rikkaidai stepped up with a large snowball, black flames surrounding him. "Is that the best all of you can do?" he roared. "TARUNDO-"

_-WHAM!_

"I GOT HIM!I GOT HIM!"

Kintaro cheered, doing a victory dance and laughing at the snow mountain on Sanada's hat. "Now that's the real definition of a 'snowcap'!" He stuck his tongue out at a silently fuming Sanada. "Tarundoru~!" Because he was chortling with laughter, he didn't notice Sanada's Black Aura rise up to full power until he felt something dark and heavy crawling down his spine.

"U-uh..." Kintaro stammered, willing his knees to stop shaking. He shook his head furiously and grinned. "YOU SHOULD BE THE ONE SCARED, RIKKAIDAI'S EMPEROR!" Kintaro yelled, unleashing a very familiar swinging motion.

Sanada flinched, recognizing the attack. _"EVERYONE RUN!"_

"SUPER ULTRA GREAT DELICIOUS DAISHARIN YAMA ARASHI!"

* * *

"Fighting with snow's weird…"

Ryoma watched the middle schoolers throw balls of snow at each other, having recovered after Kintaro's smash caused another avalanche. Only this time it hadn't been so mini.

"Snow itself is weird…"

Ryoma blinked, hesitantly sticking out his tongue to try and catch a snowflake. He had seen some people do it. It was like shaved ice, though…waterier. He had gone to sit at the side of the shed a while ago, away from the hellfire. At the moment, with the screams and explosion noises (Ryoma didn't want to know why, but there were explosions), it was obviously the safest place to be. It was also a place where he could think in peace. He was still thinking about what past he remembered.

"…"

_Flashback:_

_A man sat across from Ryoma, twirling his hair worriedly. It was the first time he had come face to face with Ryoma ever since a past incident, though Ryoma didn't know it. _

"_So…Ryoma, I'm going to…tell you…a few things about yourself." he started breezily, putting on a casual smile. "Like, what you like, personality, that kind of stuff. Is that alright with you? Would you rather sleep instead, take a walk outside…"_

"_No thank you. I've slept quite a bit already these past few days." the boy replied, smiling timidly. His eyes still had an empty look to them though. _

"_Well, first of all…your favorite color is silver." The man continued, trying to recall the traits he had learned about Ryoma, though he didn't know if they were still the same. It had been that long._

"_Is it really? But not many of my belongings are the color silver." Ryoma replied hesitantly._

"…_Eh…how do I explain this…think about it this way – if someone loved the color…blue, and everything they had was blue, what do you think would happen?"_

_Ryoma frowned. "…that person…would….stop liking the color?"_

"_Yes, because they'd get tired of it. You see?"_

"_Yeah…"_

"_Your favorite subject is science, your best subject is English, and your worst subject is Japanese."_

"_Is that really so? I think I'm fluent." Ryoma said, confused. _

"_Er…you're smart…"_

"_O-ok…Thank you?" Ryoma said, slightly flustered. "Ummm, w__hat do I like?" _

"…"

"_I must like tennis, there are so many tennis balls and rackets in my room, along with some posters of tennis playing people. Though, it seemed quite hard when I watched a game on TV the other day…such a tiny ball." Ryoma said, looking at a tennis ball in slight wonder._

"_Well…"_

"_Do I like tennis? Am I good at it?"_

"…_.Well, it's hard to say, I mean…y-you're…well, um…you can try it out, if you want." he replied, fumbling with his words._

"_Eh?"_

"_Anyways, you like grilled fish! You also like taking baths, and you like to collect bath salts from all over the world. I heard- no, I know, you're good at art, and you like to sing."_

"_Yeah? But what about-"_

"_Say, it's been a long day. Let's continue with this conversation tomorrow. You must be exhausted, and I don't want to overwork your brain too much. Go get some rest. Your eyes are red."_

"_Ok, thanks, Nanjiro-san."_

"_One more thing, Ryoma…call me oyaji, or tou-san…whichever you prefer." Nanjiro replied quietly, biting his lip._

"_Then…you're my father?"_

_Flashback end._

_That had to be the worst conversation in my whole life, with or without my past. _Ryoma thought to himself. He had never been able to figure out his personality. In the end, he had just gone with the advice someone had given him, and that had created the personality he had been using the past 6 months. It had worked well enough so far.

_But you know,_ he thought, _what if I had just kept the personality I had right after I lost my memories? Would I be much different?_

It was still snowing heavily, and Ryoma snuggled deeper into his thin sweater, wishing he still had the brown one, which he had stuffed back into his bag. At least it had been furry. Speaking of that jacket, he still didn't know who it belonged to. It was bothering him.

_Snow…_

Ryoma glanced over at the front of the shed, sighing as he watched Kintaro cream a handful of snow into Shinji's face before getting a fistful of it himself. Though Kintaro tried not to show it, he was trembling a little bit because Sanada kept giving him death glares with glowing red eyes.

"What an idiot."

_Snow…_

Bored, he randomly hummed a Christmas carol. _Maybe I should have gone and joined the fight after all._ He was about to stand up when Momo ran up and shoved a handful of snow down Kaido's pants, causing the snake to howl, hiss, and curse in ways that really shouldn't be heard by anyone, let alone seventh graders, as Oishi was quick to point out.

"Never mind then...Well, maybe if I'm careful…" Ryoma peered around the corner of the shed cautiously, only to see Yuuta get beamed in the face by a snow Hadoukyuu from Taka. The unfortunate middle schooler was sent soaring through the air until he landed face first into a snowdrift, K.O.'d. How was the snow already firm enough for that?

"…Too dangerous."

_Snow…_

_Ugh! I can't stop thinking about the snow!_ Ryoma frowned, glaring momentarily at the snow. _What's so special about it? Ok fine, I guess I kinda like it...it's kinda nice..._

_But…_

A few moments later:

"ECHIZEN!"

"Eh?"

_-wham!_

Ryoma wanted to think more, but couldn't quite focus because of the mound of water slush dripping down his face.

"GOT YOU, ECHIZEN~!" Momo yelled, laughing. "IF YOU WANNA GET REVENGE, COME OUT AND JOIN US! YOU CAN'T" he paused for a breath - he was yelling at the top of his lungs. "JUST SIT OUT! YOU JUST CAN'T!" Everyone else paused and waited expectantly.

"…We can't have fun if one of us is sitting out." Sanada added, much to Ryoma's surprise. The rest of them nodded.

"Well, don't come complaining to me if you like getting wet!" Ryoma yelled back, smirking as he wiped the rest of the snow off his face and ran to launch an attack on Momo. He stomped out the bad feelings he had felt about the snow, and grinned in satisfaction as he nailed Momo right in the face.

Snow seemed to be more fun than he expected.

"Mada mada dane!"

* * *

"Those guys…"

"This is…"

"Dude, what are those middle schoolers up to?"

All the high schoolers stood near the entrance of the clearing, watching as the middle schoolers continued to bomb each other with snowballs. They tried to make it look as if they had things to do, but they really didn't. It was just as cold in their cabin, as there wasn't any heat, and there wasn't anything to do in there anyways.

In truth, they wanted to join, but were too embarrassed to go up to them and ask, "Hey, can we join you guys?" when all that time they had treated the middle schoolers like trash.

"It…it doesn't matter anyway!" another high schooler scoffed. "It's not like…it's not like…it's uh, interesting." He looked away, embarrassed, as it was obvious everyone disagreed.

"…Maybe…maybe we could go out there and…"

"B-but what if they taunt us? We did treat them pretty badly, after all." someone pointed out.

"Well, I'm going." a voice replied indigently.

Heads turned. _"Kabuto?"_

"Yeah. I'm bored!" Kabuto pouted, trotting into the clearing without a further word. "And I'm cold too! As ironic as it sounds, snowball fighting will warm me up!" Kabuto and his little group of friends into the clearing, shivering. They ducked a few missiles (aka: snowballs) before the middle schoolers halted their fight.

"Yo!" Kabuto said cheerfully. "Trust you guys to find something fun to do!"

Daisuke and Kei smiled shyly, and Himura waved good-naturedly. Akana, though reluctant, waved as well, joined by a grinning Yugito.

"Can we join you?"

_-Wham! _They ducked to avoid a snowball, which exploded on contact with the shed wall behind them.

"There you go! That means you guys have been officially invited!" Kenya yelled, joined by the cheers and laughter from the rest of the middle schoolers. The high schoolers laughed and rushed to battle, leaving Sasabe and the rest hanging back, still hesitant. They were still uncertain because it was obvious Kabuto had always been on the middle schoolers' good side, unlike them.

"You know…" A familiar voice started.

"WHOA!" Sasabe jumped about three feet in the air at the sight of Ryoma.

"We're on the same side now." Ryoma poked his head around a tree next to the high schoolers, trying to talk to them without becoming a target. "We were the second we got together to convince Coach Nyudo to train us again."

"R-Really?" Matsudaira asked.

"Yeah. So don't worry about it." With that, Ryoma went off to sneak behind Kabuto and slam him with a Drive A.

"You heard that? We're on the same team in tennis now!" Sasabe bellowed, confidence restored. "But that doesn't mean we're comrades in snowfall fighting! Let's get 'em!"

"_YEAH! ATTACK!"_

"EYAAAH!"

"WHOA! HIGH SCHOOLERS ATTACKING!"

"INVASION!"

"WE'RE OUT-NUMBERED!"

"DON'T LOSE FAITH! GET THEM!" Sanada roared, revenge against Kintaro forgotten.

"URAAAH!"

For the rest of the day, the mountains were filled with screams, cries, even more screams, and laughter from the brawling snowball fighters as they enjoyed being friends after countless days of fighting. They attacked each other with snowballs, and got facefulls of it at times. They really were on the same team now.

Maybe one day, they would even be friends.

For the grand finale, Momo rushed up to Kintaro and stuffed snow down his pants too, before shooting after Inui to do the same.

Unfortunately though, Momo pulled too hard and all of Inui's pants and boxers came crashing down to earth. Inui howled out in pain as he landed you-know-what first into a snowdrift, before a mound of snow toppled off a tree and onto his head, burying him alive, leaving only his butt showing.

Renji looked at Inui and shook his head at the sorry sight.

"…How unsightly, Sadaharu."

_Later at night:_

"Crap crap crap, why is it so cold?!"

"I'm freezing!"

"Oh god, i-i-t's cold!"

"I'm c-c-cold too!" Kintaro whimpered, huddling up next to Kenya for warmth.

"Stop complaining! This temperature is nothing!" Sanada yelled, shivering slightly himself.

It was nighttime, and time to sleep. After their snowball fight, which had lasted a few hours, it had suddenly started to rain. Before long, it had become a rainstorm and all of the snow had melted in less than an hour. Everyone had been forced to run to shelter, being the cave for the middle schoolers and the cabin for the high schoolers.

Thing is, the rainstorm soon invited its friend the windstorm to come too, and it was freezing in the cave. The wind battered the makeshift door so hard it had to be tied down with rope found in a shed, making it near impossible for the wind to take it off. It also made it near impossible for_ humans_ to take off, but they decided to deal with it later. It wasn't much protection from the unbearable cold though. It was dark, and the howling wind was extremely creepy. Everyone's voices echoed too. Even their breathing echoed. And the fact that it was too windy to risk torches so it was almost pitch black? _Creepy._ Also, Kaido had disappeared somewhere, but no one knew where.

"How can the weather change so quickly?!" Momo complained, sneezing.

"Weather is illogical…" a shivering Inui replied. He had recovered from his little accident, but he still wouldn't look anyone in the eye, especially Momo. Momo was lucky Inui didn't have any supply of Inui Juice left.

"Er...if anyone needs to go to the washroom they should pair up, r-right?" Kintaro asked.

"Yes, it's dark so someone might trip and hurt themselves." Sanada said quickly. "It's the best for everyone."

"Now what?" Ryo asked, shuddering in his sleeping bag.

"Sleep, what else?" Gakuto snapped back. "Does it look like we can do anything else?"

"I know what we can do. We can turn into popsicles." Ryo replied dryly.

Yuuji laughed, eyes sparkling. "A brand new product!" he started, imitating a salesperson. "Please do try our delicious frozen middle schoolers! They come in many different sizes, ranging from small Seigakus to huge Higas!"

"W-What do you mean, huge?" Tanishi yelled indigently.

"You can choose from a variety of rare frozen treats such as, "Fudomine Freezies", "Shitenhoji sandwiches", "Rikkaidai Pupina pops ("Pupina!")", and for anyone who calls in the next two minutes might even get the bonus – "Frozen Nyudo!"

"Disgusting!"

Everyone burst out laughing, grinning through their frozenness. Yuuji grinned and high-fived Koharu.

_-BAM!_

The middle schoolers fell silent, instantly alert.

_-BAM! BAM! BAM!_

Everyone froze, eyes turning nervously to the makeshift door, firmly tied shut at the entrance of the cave. There was a bam sound coming from the other side. No one was laughing anymore.

"That's not…that's not…an animal, is it?" Kintaro asked, nervously laughing.

"T-There can't be, it's too cold." Yuuta replied shakily. "R-right?"

"But…" Ryo started quietly, deep in thought.

"B-but what?" Gakuto asked cautiously.

"Maybe it's a husky?" Ryo suggested hopefully, eyes sparkling. Everyone hit their head comically and rolled their eyes as the dog lover in Ryo was activated.

"Maybe it's a _wolf_." Wakashi replied, not helping.

"That's in the dog family!" Ryo put in excitedly.

"Maybe it's a _bear!"_ Wakashi sighed.

"But you know, if you go back far enough, bears and dogs are probably rela-"

"Shut up, dog lover! Go eat a bone or something!"

"Chances of a wolf up here in this temperature…" Inui started, flipping through his green notebook worriedly.

"Don't finish that sentence!" Momo yelped.

_-BAM! BAM! BAM!_

"It's trying to break in!" Koharu wailed, hugging Yuuji tightly. "Yu-kun, I've always loved you!"

"Me too, Koharu~!"

"Would you guys shut up with that?!" Kenya snapped. "This is why everyone says you're the 'weird gay guys'! You're ruining Shitenhoji's image!"

"Don't be scared!" Sanada yelled, picking up a rock. "I'll chase it away."

"Sanada-san…" Everyone looked at him, newfound respect in their eyes. "Go for it!" The majority of the middle schoolers then proceeded to scurry to the far back of the cave, leaving Sanada standing all alone, sweat-dropping.

Ryoma sighed, hand on his head. No one had ever considered the likelier possibility. He quietly walked over to the door and, after many tries, pried it open a crack. Outside were Sasabe and a few other high schoolers, having tried to open the door without success and had resorted to knocking very loudly.

"Yo." Ryoma said.

"Uh…" Sasabe mumbled, flustered.

"Come in. You're letting in the rain."

Sasabe and the others were ushered in, and they sat shivering on the cold rocky ground.

"Sasabe-san and the high schoolers." Momo said, surprised. "Why are you guys here? Don't you have a cabin?"

"Lucky bastards." Kaido muttered, sulking. He had somehow reappeared after having gone missing for a few hours.

"There's no heat." Sasabe retorted, scowling.

"It's better than this!" Kaido hissed back. "There aren't icicles in the cabin! Or bats! Or huge mice!" _Huge mice?_ The middle schoolers wondered.

"Oh yeah? At least your roof's steady! Ours keeps making these creaking noises!"_ Aie, that is scary._ The middle schoolers thought sympathetically.

"At least you don't have animal threats! Besides, our cave's who-knows-how-deep, so it has wind howling! You can hear it right now!"

"Oh, so you're scared?" Sasabe sneered.

"I'M NOT SCARED!" Kaido howled, a little too loudly to be convincing.

"Oi, Kaido, that's enough!" Oishi put in, putting a hand on Kaido's shoulder. "We lost that match, fair and squa- wait. Er, let's forget that!" Oishi cut off, smiling a panicky smile as the middle schoolers glared at him darkly.

_Fair and square my butt!_ they seethed.

"Come stay at our cabin." Sasabe said casually, ignoring the last remark about the match.

"WHAT?!" Everyone stared, some people gaping.

Sasabe flushed under all the stares. "Well….I know Coach Nyudo said it couldn't accommodate all of us, but if you guys brought your sleeping bags and some people slept on the floor, I think everyone would fit. Some of us can sleep on the floor...including..." Sasabe's voice dropped down to a whisper, and he looked away. "...m-me, I guess."

"Huh?" Everyone still couldn't believe what they were hearing. Since when was Sasabe nice? It wasn't making any sense. The snow must have had magic powers or something. It was forcing nice feelings into Sasabe's system.

"You guys don't have to come if you don't want to!" Sasabe huffed. He grabbed the other high schoolers and made his way out. "Come on! Let's go back!" he roared.

The middle schoolers grinned.

"We're coming!"

_The next day:_

Once again, the weather was weird, or 'illogical', as Inui put it. It was now warm and sunny. Everyone had gone back to their shorts and t-shirts, and it was a little bit humid.

"Ugh, this is a relief." Yuuta said.

"You bet! But it's so muddy now…" Gakuto replied, making a face at his caked-with-mud sneakers.

"Puri."

The middle schoolers and high schoolers were gathered in front of Coach Nyudo's cabin again, waiting for the coach to come out. When it had started snowing, the coach had instantly retreated into his (heated) cabin and hadn't come out at all.

Coach Nyudo finally lumbered out, for once gourd not in his hand. Everyone held their breath. That was a bad sign. It meant the coach was sober. That was dangerous.

"So, coach, what are we up to today?" Kenya ventured hesitantly.

Coach Nyudo smirked. "The final test."

"…"

"huwah?"

_To be continued_

**Next chapter, mountain training wrapped up, (finally XD) and the middle schoolers go back to U-17. I'm not doing the match between Court 2 and the middle schoolers. I'll do a summary, but not a chapter. The anime's good enough for that. Instead, I have another match or two. I wanted to do an omake for Kaido's adventures but...this chapter's long enough as is. Besides, I bully him too much XD Yeah, he went missing cuz he was scared XD he probably ran away screaming into the sunset again.**

**Random short omake right below! Bored XD**

**Thanks for reading!**

**So, would anyone like to order a Frozen Nyudo? XD **

Omake: The first day at the Echizen house

"So, Ryoma," Nanjiro started. "Since you'll be living here for a bit, feel free to explore."

"Sure, Nan-...um, oyaji." Ryoma replied.

"I'll leave you for a bit, then!"

"E-EH?!" Ryoma started to protest, but Nanjiro had already left. _What now?_ he wondered, nervous. For all he knew, he was in a living room. He took a few cautious steps before his foot fell through a floorboard.

"Wah!" Ryoma winced, pulling his leg out. He blinked and looked at the hole in the floor, which had been covered up by the loose floorboard. It looked intentional. Ryoma could see something hidden in the hole. He pulled his hand through the floorboard into the hole at the very moment Rinko and Nanjiro entered the room. They watched in horror as Ryoma pulled out some magazines from the hole.

_"NOOOOOO!"_ Nanjiro yelled, turning pale.

Ryoma stared at the magazines, wide-eyed.

"The Idiot's Guide to Porn...? Good Morning Blond American Hotties...? The best way to tell if the D-cups are real...?"

_"NANJIRO YOU FREAKING IDIOT!"_

_"AHHHH! R-RINKO! NO! I- STOP RIPPING MY TREASURES!"_

And so Ryoma gained a new..._image_ of who Nanjiro was.


	12. Surging on

**Hey! How's life, along with school…for people who have it. Sorry for updating late...actually, I don't remember when I last updated, sorry…but school just started and I got a little caught up in the hype XP It's been what, 3 or 4 weeks?**

**I'm leaving out some parts that were in the anime, because…well…I wouldn't be able to write them better. Actually, I do have quite a few of those scenes but...ok whatever XP I'm sure no one really minds...*looks away guiltily* In fact, forget everything I just said. This has a lot of anime references in it XP with some changes of course cuz this wouldn't be a fanfic without 'em. XP**

**Oh yeah, so much for not seeing Kabuto for 2/3 chapters, he just snuck in through the back door last chapter XP and got away with it…(well I did put him in there XP)**

**I had a great grammar fail in the last chapter, saying "one day" instead of "some day" lol ('one day' is for past reference, 'some day' is for future references for anyone who doesn't get what I'm saying.)**

**Anyways, here's chapter 12! Thanks a million!**

**As always, reviews are greatly appreciated! (other than 'you suck' plz XD)**

Chapter 12: Surging On

_Previously:_

"_So…what are we doing today?" Kenya ventured hesitantly._

_Coach Nyudo smirked. "The final test."_

"…"

"_huwah?"_

Present:

"Wait, what?" Everyone looked at each other, looking for an explanation that no one could give.

"Why…final?" Momo asked, bewildered. "Y-You can't mean…"

"Yeah, our training can't be over yet!" Kai protested. "It's just started!"

Coach Nyudo blinked, looking geuninely surprised. "So…all of you actually thought you would be staying here in this dump for the next few months while the winners trained at U-17?"

"Well…uh…" Now everyone looked a bit flustered. True be told, they had actually grown…attached to their lifestyle. The cooking was getting fun, and the food sometimes turned out to be good, if Inui didn't touch it. The cave, well, that was going better, if you left out the day before with the storm. Training in the great outdoors was exciting, going to the bar lounge to steal sake was a daily routine now (yes, they still went every few days to steal sake), and everyone had just started to get along (well, most people. Some high schoolers still sulked in a corner glaring at the middle schoolers). Even Coach Nyudo was becoming a bit more bearable, though it was probably just that everyone had gotten used to him.

"S-So what does this mean?" Jackal asked, eyes wide. "Are we…_leaving?"_ The idea of leaving now sounded completely alien to most people.

"The thought of leaving this dump is that unbearable?" Coach Nyudo replied, sighing. "I'm pretty happy to be rid of you brats."

"Why am I not surprised?" Momo said, shrugging playfully.

"W-where are we going?" A high schooler asked. "…Home?"

_Aw man… _Kintaro thought, pouting. _Everyone else gets to have fun, but we have to go home?! i haven't even played many great matches yet!_

Coach Nyudo frowned. "You'll see."

Now everyone looked even more confused.

Coach Nyudo sighed, wishing he had his sake. He made a mental note to fetch it the second the meeting was over. Training rowdy teenagers to play tennis and beat people from an elite camp in a revolution was too tiring for someone who drank all day. "I will just say one thing…it's the middle schoolers against the high schoolers…"

Some people looked slightly downcast. Right when they were getting along!

"Hey, it is what it is!" Ryo broke in good naturedly. The rest nodded.

"So," Coach Nyudo continued. "All of you will go to complete training, while preparing for the real final test."

"And what's that?" Sanada asked.

"You'll see."

* * *

"God, so what's going to happen next?" Everyone was now wandering around the clearing, waiting for Coach Nyudo to post the training schedule on the cabin wall.

"No clue…should I be hoping…" Harukaze asked hesitantly.

Sanada shook his head. "I don't think so. The coaches at U-17 said it themselves. '300 is too many' I don't think it'll work out if we go back to the camp."

"That camp's huge though!" Ryo groaned. "I'm sure they could accommodate 60 or so more people!"

"In fact, I bet you that the guys there are probably lonely, there's that much room there." Gakuto added.

"So what did 'revolution' really mean, then?" Jackal asked.

"Probably that the losers would get stronger than the winners." Niou replied, leaning against a tree. He was munching on a stale muffin he had found...somewhere. "It'll be nice to get some decent food for once and not have to fight for it." he commented, picking out a rock from it.

"Yeah…" Wakashi said, nodding, though he was only focusing on the first part. He hit his fist against his palm, determination in his eyes. "It'll be an overthrow!"

"I was wondering when you'd say that." Ryo replied, laughing.

"But if we go home now, how will we stay stronger?" Oishi asked.

"Continue training on our own, I guess…" Momo finished quietly. "If we can…"

"What do you think, Echizen?" Kai asked, turning to the calm first year. Ryoma shrugged in return. "There's no point in sitting around. We need to start training." he finally said.

"Yeah!" Kintaro said excitedly. "What's on the menu today?"

"Sand bags and Hellcatchers, and about ten thousand other things. Look, it's posted." Ryoma pointed to the sheet, the coach having somehow posted it without anyone noticing, ninja style.

"Hellcatchers?!"

Indeed, the Hellcatchers finally made their debut, after the disastrous first time. They finally found out just what the Hellcatchers were for. They were red weighted gloves, basically, and the task was to catch balls while wearing it. It could also be used for rallying, climbing, and balancing (when used on only one hand). Wasn't too easy when it weighed about 10, 15, and even 20 pounds. The 20 pound ones gave everyone cramps after five minutes.

The notice detailed exactly what the players were to do.

Training Regimen:

(Warm up first. Don't blame me if you trash tear a tendon or two. Also, I will know if you try to cheat on these. Do you want to know what will happen if you do? I didn't think so. Do the exercises in order.)

1. 30000 swings. Switch hands every 5000.

2. 300 more swings. Switch hands every 50.

3. 5000 swings to cool down. Switch hands when it makes sense to.

4. Run down from the cabin to the waterfall and cross the river carrying 50 pound sand bags.

5. Catch 200 balls using the Hellcatchers.

6. Tie yourself up in a tree and rally upside down with 5 people for 100 hits each (in a row). Every ball missed means you have to start again. Use lead rackets if you want. If you use them, you only have to hit 70 balls in a row.

7. Do some cool down stretches.

8. Rally hard for 500 hits. Any ball missed and you have to start again. Same applies to everything else.

9. Rally on the rocks in the middle of the river 250 times.

10. Sprint from the cabin to the cooking clearing and back 20 times

11. Climb a few cliffs of your choice. I'll be nice on that one.

12. Rally with a partner 500 more times.

13. Jog lightly on the spot for 1 hour. Sprint hard for 20 minutes.

"What…" Kenya groaned, wincing. "Is this a death sentence or what?"

"Oh god…" A high schooler added, already sweating from the thought of it.

"I'm tired just looking at that." Kabuto muttered. "After this there's no way the winners will be stronger than us."_ That's one problem solved_...he thought, making a sour face.

"I think we're allowed to take breaks," Daisuke started.

"Whenever we want." Kei finished. "Just in between each exercise, not during."

"Even so," Momo said, "This'll be-"

"_Hell."_ Everyone finished, grinning.

"Then let's get started!"

"YEAH!"

The whole day passed kind of uneventfully, leading from the exhausting swings to the river crossings. Slowly but surely, the middle schoolers began to plow on ahead of the high schoolers, leaving only a handful who were still next to them. Eventually, 7 hours of muscle suicide, aching lungs, and colorful cursing passed.

_7 hours later:_

"Now what?" Gakuto huffed, leaning against a tree for a break. A few minutes later any middle schooler that weren't already with them joined. Together they all walked/limped/crawled/clawed over to the coach's cabin for more instructions.

"Well," Kabuto started, wincing as his muscles protested the movement. "I think we're done? This sucks, my legs hurt so much I can't even walk down stairs!"

"At least you can walk!" Akana retorted, before tripping over a log and hitting his face.

"We're saved?" Kintaro asked, panting. He flopped onto the soft grass with a content sigh, joined by most of the other half dead middle schoolers. He was soon daydreaming about takoyaki.

"My lungs are killing me!" Momo groaned, trying to even out his breathing.

"…Usu."

"Kabaji-kun said that we're done today's training- w-why is everyone looking at me like that?" Taka said, cheeks turning a bright shade of red. He quickly turned his attention to the slip of yellow paper on Coach Nyudo's cabin that accompanied the first one. "Look, there's another one!"

If you've finished the training:

1. Do cool down stretches.

2. Take a half hour break.

3. Get a good drink.

4. Then do it all again.

"…"

"NANI?! WE HAVE TO DO THE TRAINING AGAIN?!"

~o0o~

_10 hours later:_

The middle schoolers lay down on the cool evening grass, too exhausted to even move an inch. They had been half dead the first time, but now they were almost fully dead. After they had finished, they had plopped down on the grass yet again. They were too tired to even feel hungry or go to the bathroom (but nature's opinion differed on the latter, of course.) After about 2 hours, the rest of the high schoolers joined them. (A few were with the middle schoolers the whole time, like Kabuto and Yugito.) Now it honestly looked like some serial killer had gone around killing 80 teenagers and left them sprawled out lifeless on the ground.

Coach Nyudo trudged out, staring at the pile of bodies. "Why did it take you so long?" he finally asked between gulps of his sake. "And why are you so tired? I thought you had more in you than that."

"We had to do that twice!" Momo replied, panting. "We're lucky it didn't take us the whole night! In fact, we're lucky we're still alive!"

"Yeah!" Wakashi said wearily, looking up from his facedown death position. "17 hours! 17!" _This is one annoying overthrow! _he thought.

Coach Nyudo blinked. "Twice? What are you talking about?"

Everyone froze. "W-well…that notice…" Kenya said shakily, weakly pointing to the yellow sheet on the cabin.

"T-The one next to the first one with the training list…" Yuuta said, nervously smiling.

"It said to do it twice…" Shinji finished.

Coach Nyudo stared at them for a whole minute before exploding with laughter. Everyone just stared with wide eyes as he hit his fist against a tree, doubled over laughing. He looked at them as if he had never seen anything stupider in his whole life.

"W…Wha?!"

Still snickering, Coach Nyudo, pointed to the notice on the cabin. "You didn't read it right."

"E-EH?"

"When it said 'do it all again', I meant for you to do the cool down stretches and break again! You're all idiots!" he roared, still laughing. "You're all supposed to do individual training afterwards, not 10 hours of running!"

"EEHH?! NO WAY!"

"THAT WAS INTENTIONAL, WASN'T IT!"

~o0o~

The rest of the training days passed the same way (except for the repeat training – Coach Nyudo made that more specific for them, even though he was tempted to not.), though there were lots of frusterating moments at some points, like when the middle schoolers lost count while doing the swings and the high schoolers missed the 499th ball and had to restart the rally all over again. The middle schoolers also decided to add in some additional choice training, so everyone could improve on things they were lacking on, for instance, Kenya and Inui on balance, as they learned during the river crossings:

_During the river run:_

"My back…." Sakata whimpered, gingerly leaping from rock to rock, trying to cross the river without drowning.

"Ngh!" Kenya's arms spun wildly in circles as he struggled to keep his balance. "D-Damn it! The bar lounge mission should have fixed this!" he wailed, leaning dangerously forward. It would be easy to cross the river except for two things – one, the rocks were very spiky. Not very good for worn out sneakers. Second, the rocks were spread apart quite a bit making it necessary to jump from rock to rock, even worse for their feet. It was proving very hard to balance on spikes.

"You can always run on the water if you fall." Ryoma pointed out, balancing on a rock perfectly.

"True that, but that'll be cheating!" Kenya yelled back, leg trembling.

"Then just run back to the start." Renji said calmly, also taunting Kenya by balancing perfectly. "The way you're supposed to if you _fail."_

"No way!" Kenya yelled. "I won't fall!"

"Hah! I'm way better at this than you!" Tanishi bragged, also balancing perfectly. Kenya's face burned crimson as his rival looked down at him smugly.

"Hmm...contrary to expectations, you're really light on your feet...Tanishi-san..." Ryoma said, looking slightly skeptical.

"SHUT UP! YOU'VE SAID THIS BEFORE!" Tanishi roared, his composure shattering instantly.

"Chances of Echizen mentioning that every time...100%" Renji added, ignoring the look of rage from Tanishi and the smug look that was now on Kenya's face.

"Don't worry Kenya, chances of you falling is only…67.9%" Inui said encouragingly, though it had the opposite effect.

"WHAT?! The chances of me falling are bigger than-!"

Inui's percentage was probably higher, because he slipped facedown onto a rock seconds after, cutting Kenya off. "AGH!"

"What goes around comes around." Kenya huffed triumphantly, crossing his arms and destroying his balance.

"WAGH!"

_-SPLASH!_

* * *

_Later that night:_

"1324!"

"1325!"

"13-"

"Stop!" Coach Nyudo walked into the clearing as the middle schoolers and high schoolers were practicing their swings together. It was after dinner of the third day of the crazy training, and they were practicing in the cool night air.

"GAH! C-Coach Nyudo?!" Everyone snapped to full attention, some people hurriedly fixing their slouchy forms. "Why are you here?!"

"I mean…" Kenya stuttered, quickly waving with a fake smile. Everyone still did believe the rumors about Coach Nyudo throwing people over cliffs. "H-Hey there, Coach Nyudo!" Everyone quickly followed suite.

"Hmph. All of you, come with me." Coach Nyudo led the bedraggled group over to a mini mountain, though no one was really sure if it was a mini mountain, or just a very large boulder. "This is another piece of training I'm adding."

"Well, nothing can surprise us now." Kai said.

"What is it?" Momo asked. "Climbing?"

"You could say that." Coach Nyudo replied, smirking. "More of a run though." Everyone gave each other quizzical looks. The mountain wasn't extremely steep, but it was still something one would instinctively climb first.

"It's a little small though." Akana pointed out. "We're not all going on at the same time, right? We'll step on each other!"

"I'll only explain once, so listen up!" Coach Nyudo said, crossing his arms impatiently. "_All of you_ will _run _up the mountain at the same time. Go as fast as you can and hit the ball that he drops before it touches the ground."

"He?" Momo asked, looking around for another coach or something. Everyone prayed that Coach Nyudo didn't have a brother or sister. _Hm, then again, I can't really imagine a female Coach Nyudo…_ Momo mused, wincing as he brain came up with an inappropriate image of a girly Nyudo.

Coach Nyudo whistled, and to everyone's amazement, an eagle (who everyone swore was scowling at them - they were finding that the eagles didn't seem to like them very much.) flew over the mountain, holding a tennis ball in his claws.

Kintaro's eyes bugged. "W-Whoa!" he exclaimed. "He trains eagles!" He began bobbing up and down excitedly. "I've gotta get one of those! I could keep it in my room!"

_Uh, really?_ Everyone thought, sweat-dropping_. I don't think I'd want an eagle flying around in my room. Or worse, looking for a meal!_

The coach smirked. "Middle schoolers or high schoolers, I'll give a reward to whichever group hits it first."

"A reward?" Kintaro asked excitedly. "Takoyaki?!"

"Ready?"

"Wait, what?" Momo asked, panicking.

"GO!"

"I've got this!" Kintaro yelled, grinning as he shot up the mountain. "Takoyaki is mi- UWAAAAH!" His feet slid out from under him and he began somersaulting backwards down the hill. Everyone winced as he crash landed on the hard ground below, eagle-spread.

"I-I can barely climb this…" Momo said, struggling to get a handhold. "Let alone _run_ up this!"

"Er, maybe we can climb quickly instead?" Yugito huffed, grimacing as he began to slide down the mountain. No one was even a fourth way up.

"How about this – let's have a race to see who can run _down _the fastest." Yuuji joked.

"Don't you mean who can fall to their deaths the fastest?" Gakuto retorted.

_-phwee!_

The eagle dropped the ball, grinning a sly eagle grin at them before flying away triumphantly. Coach Nyudo glared at them disapprovingly. "That's it, then."

"W-We didn't even make it halfway up…" Taka stuttered. Silence hovered over the group.

"Mada mada… dane." Ryoma said, looking away.

"Well, we'll do this training every morning, afternoon, and evening until someone hits the ball. Now go!" Coach Nyudo ordered.

"Hai…" Everyone said, some with more enthusiasm than others. They began to make their way back to their clearing to finish off the annoying swings. The swings were the most boring part of training. Who wanted to stand rooted to the spot and wave a racket around while hitting nothing for four hours?

Kabuto looked at Ryoma's retreating figure and smiled. "Now I wonder who will get it first..."

~o0o~

_Two days later:_

"Are you guys all ready?"

"No, not everyone's here yet!"

"Hmph. Hurry up!" Coach Nyudo yelled impatiently as the remaining middle schoolers and high schoolers rushed to join everyone else for the evening mountain run. After two days, no one had gotten to the top yet, though some people were getting dangerously close. Even the eagle was beginning to look a little worried.

"C'mon, c'mon, I want my takoyaki already!" Kintaro yelled, jumping up and down excitedly. He shot the high schoolers a competitive look. _There's no way they're stealing my reward!_ he declared in his mind. _Especially if it's takoyaki!_

"This never gets easier..." Momo sighed, looking at the mini mountain reproachfully. "I can still barely make it up halfway."

"Don't worry." Ryoma said, golden eyes gleaming. He smirked at Momo and the rest of the middle schoolers. "We'll definitely get off this mountain first."

~o0o~

"And wouldn't you know it, the middle schoolers won." Kabuto yawned, resting his head back against his hands. "My prediction was right-"

"You jinxed us you fox!" Akana snarled, knocking Kabuto on the head. "And you're happy about this?! All the high schoolers are stuck on this stupid mountain!"

Kabuto winced. "Hey now, I'm guessing you're not one of the people who find this mountain to be a second home, right?"

The brunette glared daggers at him. "There are bugs everywhere, my clothes are so battered they're threatening to fall off, I have scrapes everywhere, and I have to take a shower using_ river water_ when the others are jerks and use up all the shower water! Must I remind you we only have one shower? I don't like sharing water with-"

"Please don't finish that sentence." Kabuto cut in, groaning. "I just ate. But yes, this training stuff turned out fine."

Akana frowned before sighing in retaliation. "Ok fine then. You're the boss." He stalked off unhappily, refraining from shooting Kabuto stink eyes.

"Seriously though, what side of the bed did he get off on?" Kabuto grumbled, rubbing his head. "Must have fallen off altogether."

* * *

_On the middle schoolers side:_

"..."

"Alright, I suppose this is far enough."

Ryoma leaned against a tree, across from Coach Nyudo, who had mysteriously pulled him away from the group at dinnertime without giving him a reason. Ryoma blinked as Coach Nyudo walked him over to a clump of trees, sitting down on a stump. He wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that he had been the one to hit the ball in the final test.

"…Um…" he started. "So what did you…" he trailed off. For once, Coach Nyudo was deep in thought and didn't say a word.

The coach finally spoke after a few moments. "Take this." He pulled out a key from his pocket and tossed it to Ryoma. It was copper and looked like any other key.

"…What is this?" he asked.

"What do you think? It's a key." Coach Nyudo snorted.

Ryoma sighed. "…But what's it for?"

"You'll see when you come across a lock." Coach Nyudo stood up and began to walk away. "It isn't for decoration. It's for tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?" Ryoma asked, before catching himself. He didn't want Coach Nyudo stating obvious flaws in his questions again. "I mean, what's happening tomorrow?"

Coach Nyudo sighed. "Didn't I tell you to wait and see?"

"Then…" Ryoma said quietly. "Tell me one thing."

"Hm?"

"Why are you giving it to me? You should be giving it to someone like Sanada-san…"

"And here I thought you were going to ask something else." Coach Nyudo muttered roughly, impatient. He was getting hungry, and his sake had run out again. "Aren't you the leader of the middle schoolers?"

Ryoma raised his eyebrows slightly, confused. "Leader? Me? I think Sanada-san's more that role."

"…I guess you don't see it. You'll get it soon enough." Coach Nyudo replied. "But…" He looked away for a moment, the darkness covering his face as he walked into the shadows.

"...You look and act like someone I know…"

* * *

_The next morning:_

"Ok, everyone line up…" Coach Nyudo ordered.

"Line up?"

"Ooh! I'm first!" Kintaro yelled. "I wanna get my takoyaki first~!"

_Who told him there was takoyaki anyway? _Kenya wondered, amused. _Must have been a little trick Shiraishi once used long ago..._

"Run down that path until you reach the clearing at the end." Ryoma's eyes widened. He recognized that path and clearing, and where it led to afterwards. Coach Nyudo caught his eye and gave a slight shake of his head, though Ryoma couldn't tell if it was too keep silent or that he was wrong.

"Balls will be hit to you while you go." he continued. "After the first person hits, he goes back to the back of line and the second person hits, and so on."

"So me…" Ryoma murmured.

"If anyone misses or stops running, go back to the start. But…" He took one last look at the middle schoolers, at the results of a few weeks under his wing. "If you somehow make it through in one go…keep running."

The middle schoolers looked somewhat confused, but nodded and set off. It was rare to question Coach Nyudo these days. Ryoma gave Coach Nyudo a small bow of his head along with a complementary smirk before joining his sempais, leaving the coach behind.

Coach Nyudo smirked and headed back. It soon turned into a small smile on his face. He shook his head ruefully, wondering what had gone into him.

"I would never admit it to anyone..." he muttered. "But I'm going to miss those brats."

* * *

"WE MADE IT!"

"THE LIGHT!"

"Stop overdramatizing it, baka Momoshiro!"

"What was that, Mamushi?!"

Once again, Oishi had to step in front of them, though it was more wobbled because of his exhaustion. "Oi, you two…how do you have the energy to argue?"

The rest of the middle schoolers were either sitting down or lying down, exhausted after a good 10 minute run/sprint for their lives. As expected, hitting balls while running down the hill hadn't been easy, but it was made harder when the shots got more powerful and even harder when side swerving shots and multiple balls were dished out. It was everyone's good luck that Ryoma managed to master hitting 8 balls just in time. Ryoma didn't tell anyone, but it made his head hurt again. He had to lie down to soothe the throbbing.

"But who hit all that?" Kintaro asked, to no one in particular. _And why was there no takoyaki?!_ he wailed in his mind._ Shiraishi told me that if I was-_

"L-Look, everyone!" Oishi said, pointing to a group of people who had just entered the clearing.

Sasabe, Kabuto, Matsudaira, Keisuke, Yugito, Himura and Akana were all standing there, looking tired enough for the middle schoolers to realize just what training they had just been doing.

"It was you guys who hit all of those?!" Momo asked, stunned. "Was this supposed to happen?"

"No." Matsudaira replied. "It was supposed to be easy for you guys, since you already proved yourselves with the final test. But we..." he continued, grinning. "Decided to make one more 'final test'."

"What?!" Kaido hissed. "You-"

"I think it helped us." Ryoma cut in, standing up to face the high schoolers. "We got one more burst of training in. If not for you..." he admitted. "I wouldn't have gotten to 8 balls." _Or was that because of Sanada-san?_ he wondered, but pushed it aside.

"Not only that, if it weren't for them, I don't think we would have ever tried so hard…" Sanada said, a slightly grateful look on his face.

"It was…fun, too, I suppose." Sasabe said bashfully, before returning back to his old bully self. The rest of the high schoolers smiled as well, and Ryoma couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness as Kabuto gave him a thumbs up and grin. He wondered how long it would be before he saw him again.

Behind him, Wakashi asked a question that the middle schoolers had wondered but had never gotten around to asking the high schoolers.

"Why did you help us?"

Sasabe looked at the others in his group. "Well…" he started, looking for the right words. "How can I say this…"

"We wanted to bet on your abilities." Kabuto finished, smiling. "That's all it was, really."

"Then," Ryoma said, smirking. "We look forward to seeing the time when you all get off this mountain too!"

"You won't be waiting long!" Sasabe declared. "In the meantime though…" he said, pointing to U-17. "Keep on running forward."

The high schoolers turned back after taking one last look at the middle schoolers, feeling a sense of relief and peace. They didn't know where it came from. Maybe they were happy that the revolution was finally set in place. Maybe they just liked the sastifaction of seeing the results of their training. Or maybe they just liked the fact that the title 'loser' didn't apply to them anymore. The peace soon turned to excitement as they left and prepared to bribe Coach Nyudo for more training with a good caveload of sake.

~o0o~

After the high schoolers left, the middle schoolers were stuck with one thing. A shed. To be more precise, it was a wooden shed that had a lock on it.

"What now?" Harukaze asked, poking the lock.

"Let's pick it!" Momo said excitedly.

"No, I have the key." Ryoma said, pulling out a copper key from his pocket. _And geez, you really are Seishun's biggest fox._ he thought, rolling his eyes.

"Where'd you get that?" Momo asked, bewildered.

"The coach gave it to me." Ryoma replied. He walked over to the lock and began to put it in.

It didn't fit.

Ryoma blinked. "What…" he had to think for a moment before remembering something. He rummaged around in his pockets for a second, then pulled out another key, similar to the one he had just tried. "Right…" he muttered. _Don't go giving me a heart attack!_ he thought, sighing.

"Two keys?" Sanada asked.

"Um…" Ryoma started. "Coach Nyudo gave me two." he said hurriedly. "Said he didn't know which one it was." He slipped the second key in, this time sliding in perfectly. As the lock opened with a click, the middle schoolers quickly opened the shed door, holding their breath in anticipation.

"This…" Sanada started, eyes wide.

"Is this our reward…?" Ryoma finished.

_One hour later:_

"EMERGENCY!"

Kikumaru burst into one of the many dining areas, yelling at the top of his lungs and destroying the once peaceful silence. Atobe and the rest of Court 3 blinked in surprise and stared at the overly energetic redhead, most of them holding a piece of toast or cup of tea.

"Kikumaru-kun, you're awfully loud today." Kite remarked, returning to his tea.

"Court 2…" Kikumaru panted. "Court 2 is having a match!"

Fuji turned to Atobe, slightly confused. "Court 2? We don't have any shuffle matches today, right?"

Atobe shook his head. "Oni said we wouldn't have any for a while."

"Then…" Fuji continued, turning back to Kikumaru. "Are Court 1 and Court 2 having a shuffle match?"

"No!" Kikumaru said, beaming. "They're playing against Ochibi and the others who left the camp!"

_To be continued_

**Ok, that's it for this chapter! Despite what I said this is more half and half with the anime, because I changed some stuff XP Ok…I don't think I'm going to do the match with Migihashi, but I'm doing the scene with Tokugawa (but dunno 'bout the match) and something different (fanfic, fanfic~)**

**Anyways, till the next chapter!**

Omake: Too many numbers?

_Halfway through the swings:_

"12546!"

"12547!"

"12548!"

"H-Hold on!" Momo said urgently.

Everyone stopped. "What is it?" Sanada asked.

"I-I'm really sorry, but I need to go to the washroom!" Momo said, sweat-dropping as everyone groaned.

"Baka! Why now?!" Kaido snapped.

"Mother Nature calls!" Momo retorted. "And when she calls, I answer!"

"Just forget about arguing and go to the washroom, Momo." Oishi said, once again stepping in between the two. "And besides, it's nice to be free of that robotic counting for a while, right?"

"Hmph...Fssshhh..." Kaido grumbled.

"Ok, ok, be right back!"

_About 2 minutes later:_

"Back! Thanks for waiting!" Momo smiled gratefully, taking back his spot in the group. "Let's get back to it!"

"Yeah!"

They were about to resume their swings, but…

"D-Dude…" Kenya said nervously. "What number were we on?"


	13. One step further

**Hey everybody, this is RTT chapter 13, and this is basically about the fight against Court 2 :)**

**This chapter…got long again. Sorry XP Also, the AN's a little long but I need to say some things (obviously XD)**

**First, don't listen to the crazy insane fanfic writer whose AN notes are always wrong XP I always say one thing in my ANs then the next chapter I'll do the exact opposite. Lol it's because I'm really changeable…indecisive…(same thing XP). I'll try to fix that by not posting too much 'next chapter' stuff :p So, uh, ignore anything I've said in previous ANs, kay?**

**Also, I know it's been way over a month. I suck, sorry. It's safe to say that this fanfic is now monthly.**

**There have been a few questions about whether or not there's going to be yaoi…and honestly I don't know. It could happen though, just not in the very near future. I will say that the most likely pairing will be…THIS IS A SPOILER, so don't read if you don't like spoilers. And not just pairing spoiler, something else in the story spoiler. Actually, I'll post them next chapter, so decide if you like spoilers then XD (*ducks into bomb shelter*)**

**Now, finally, story~!**

Chapter 13: One step further

"Tokugawa! Oni!"

_-Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!_

_-Bam! Bam! Bam!_

_-Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!_

"Hey, Tokugawa…did you hear the commotion on the main courts?"

Tanegashima Shuuji looked at the forever silent high schooler who was rallying with Oni (and who was most likely ignoring him). They were at Court 1, well off the track of the main courts, so it was likely they hadn't heard about it. Also, even if anyone had wanted to tell them, about half of the camp didn't even know where Court 1 was, so Tanegashima had taken the liberty of doing it himself.

But it didn't seem to be appreciated much.

"Tokugawa…Oni…"

No response. Talk about concentration. Or a major dislike for a certain member of Court 1. He didn't know which. Tanegashima sighed, taking a seat on the steps of the bleachers and resting his head on a hand. "Hey, stop for a sec, will you?"

Oni let the ten balls fly past him, landing with one final bam. "What is it?" he growled, turning to Tanegashima.

"They're back, aren't they?" Tokugawa asked, finally acknowledging him.

"Yep. They just finished up their matches with Court 2." Tanegashima replied. "It was quite a bang. They didn't even lose a single game. I was impressed."

"Even against Migihashi? He once gave Kanata a bit of trouble. Who beat him?" Oni asked, immediately interested.

"Hmm, I don't think I saw him." Tanegashima replied, racking his brain. "I don't think he came out."

Tokugawa frowned slightly then left, swinging his tennis bag over his shoulder as he walked. Tanegashima stared at him as he walked past him and out of sight behind a clump of trees.

"…Where's he going?" Tanegashima wondered out loud.

"…That seventh grader seems to have sparked up some interest in Tokugawa." Oni said, packing up to leave himself.

"I'm even more impressed now." Tanegashima replied, amused. "I didn't think that was possible. Tokugawa has such a tunneled vision when it comes to rivals, let alone people. You saw how he ignored me! But I didn't see him, Echizen Ryoma I mean. I'm pretty sure he's back though."

Kanata smiled, joining the two at the courts. He had just arrived to tell them about the matches at Court 2, but found that Tanegashima had already done the job.

"That's because he's playing right now, Shuu-san."

* * *

"Echizen! Echizen!"

"Echizen! Bring us home!" Momo cheered.

"Go, Echizen!" Ryo yelled, fist pumping the air. "We're almost there!"

"Migihashi! Migihashi!" Court two chanted, regaining their pride after they had been squashed like bugs by the Black Jerseys. About half of the black jersey middle schoolers had had a turn on the court, the rest sitting out because there weren't enough players on Court 2. Long story short, the results of the matches had been bad on Court 2.

"Come on, Ochibi! You can do it!" Kikumaru yelled, joined next to him by Chotaro, who was still gazing at Ryo in shock as if he couldn't believe he was really there.

"Shishido-san…Shishido-san…" Chotaro murmured, eyes beginning to light up. "You're here…"

"He's here all right!" Kikumaru sang. "Along with everyone else!" He then proceeded to grin at Oishi with sparkling eyes, though couldn't glomp him like he wanted to because everyone was focusing more on the match.

"See, I told you they were still at it, Shuu-san." Kanata said, walking to the bleachers with Tanegashima. Tokugawa and Oni were already sitting at some empty bleachers at the back. "And yet you were so impatient to leave before it ended."

"No one came out from Court 2 for a while!" Shuuji protested. "I thought they were done and that Migihashi didn't really care about it! And…" he continued, doing a double take as he saw Oni. "How did you get here so fast?"

_-BAM!_

"Hm?" They all turned.

"1-15-0…"

All eyes turned to the court, to be more exact, the smoking ball which Migihashi had just smashed into the fence, way out of bounds. On the court itself, Migihashi was currently glaring at a confused Ryoma.

"What did you just say?" Migihashi muttered, his eyes flashing with disbelief.

"Hmm?" Ryoma started, smirking. "I said I'll definitely break through your right arm's defense."

"How arrogant." Migihashi replied, a challenging smile creeping up onto his face. "How many balls did you say you could hit?"

"Ha!" Kintaro sang from the bleachers. "Koshimae can hit 8~!"

_I can speak for myself…_ Ryoma thought, sighing as Kintaro beamed as if it was his own achievement. For some weird reason, Kintaro and Sanada were still stuck on the sixth ball.

"8? Interesting. I'll tell you what…if you can get just one ball past my right side, it's your win." Migihashi continued, while getting 7 more balls from the bench.

"Heh…doesn't sound too hard." Ryoma replied cockily, getting into position. "You sure this is what you want?"

"E-Er…" the umpire started, trying to cut in and tell them that having multiple balls in play wasn't exactly allowed, even if the match wasn't official. "You guys can't-"

"Don't you…" Migihashi started, tossing up a number of balls to serve. "Worry about me!" He let 8 balls connect with the racket face with a satisfying 'bang' before they rocketed over the net to where Ryoma stood, slightly surprised.

"Ah! H-He can hit 8 balls?!" Kintaro exclaimed, face turning from confident to worried_._

"Not just 8…" Kanata said, chuckling as he turned to Tanegashima. "Or I think that's right? Was it 8?"

"You're the one who played him, Kanata." Tanegashima replied, rolling his eyes. "You should remember."

"He wasn't that interesting…" Kanata replied, taking off his glasses and cleaning them. "It didn't take me too long to beat him, although I did almost get serious near the end. That right arm defense is tricky, especially because of that...what did the middle schoolers call it? Tezuka zone?"

"But…" Tanegashima cut in, still keeping one eye on the match. "It's been a year since then, right?"

_-BAM!_

"15-15!"

"YEAH!" Cheers erupted from Court 2, along with some from the high schoolers who still hated the middle schoolers.

"You've got this, Migihashi~!"

"Show him who's boss!"

"Yeah! We can't be letting _middle schoolers_ rule the show!" another high schooler yelled, voice filled with ice at the words "middle schoolers", earning glares from the said group.

Ryoma frowned, looking at the one little yellow ball that had escaped his racket, then at the 8 on Migihashi's side. _I only just learned to hit 8…_ he thought to himself, gritting his teeth.

Migihashi smiled in triumph, confidence radiating off him. "8 balls is nothing to brag about here. There's always someone better than you."

"Is that so?" Ryoma replied, smirk returning. "Then it looks like I'll just have to learn to hit 9."

"I'm certain you can…" Migihashi said, serving once more. "Just not now!"

_-BAM!_

"30-15!" the umpire yelled, having gotten over the shock of seeing multiple copies of each player appear. He rubbed his eyes to make sure they were still working. He couldn't understand the logic of how there were 8 clones of Migihashi at one time, but he figured it was just some magic the upper courts happened to possess. Because he was on the lower courts, he had never seen this in practice.

_-BAM!_

"40-15!"

"E-Echizen…" Momo stammered, growing concerned. Next to him, Kintaro and Kaido were thinking the same thing. _Surely, surely we won't…_

"If you lose one game, you all lose, right?" Migihashi asked, looking down at Ryoma. "That's too bad for you, after having come this far."

"…" Ryoma frowned. He could say all he wanted too, but it wouldn't matter if he couldn't get nine balls over the net. _I only have one more shot_…he thought. _What am I missing? Focus on all the balls…and what?_

"Who do you think he is?! HE'S KOSHIMAE!" Both Ryoma and Migihashi looked over at the bleachers, where Sanada had just given the middle schoolers a sort of pep talk. For once it was toned down to a more normal level, both in volume and enthusiasm, rather than Sanada's usual…encouragement.

Ryoma sighed. _I _told_ Coach Nyudo that Sanada-san was the leader…_

"Echizen!" Sanada yelled, repeating what he had just told the middle schoolers for Ryoma to hear. "Because of our defeat, we almost lost sight of our goal!"

_Yeah..._

"We've worked this hard to claw our way back up from hell!"

_Of course!_

"We've all entrusted our rackets to you!"

_Huh…?_

"So you can't let this chance go!"

_Aren't there others?_

"This is our only chance at redemption!"

_Ok, never mind then._

"You're the one who led us through this! So if anyone has a chance, it's you!" Sanada finished, joined with nods and cheers from the middle schoolers.

Ryoma rolled his eyes, getting into position. "Who said I was going to lose?" he asked, golden eyes gleaming with confidence.

Migihashi frowned, glaring daggers at Sanada before focusing back to the match. He served, signaling the end of the match. _"You're finished!"_

A hush settled over the group, as everyone leaned forward in their seats and held their breath, anticipation welling up in their chests.

_Focus…focus…_Ryoma thought, bringing his arm back as the balls seem to tunnel towards him in slow motion, as they always did when he prepared to hit multiple balls. He felt like he was watching thousands of frames in a movie, played one by one.

_Focus…separate your mind…and…and_… Ryoma felt a surge of helplessness as he racked his mind for the last one. _What…_

_Flashback:_

"_Let it come naturally!"_

"GO, ECHIZEN!" Momo yelled, snapping him back into reality.

_-BAM! _

Ryoma felt a grin spread over his face as he watched the nine balls soar over the net to Migihashi, who looked like he had just swallowed an apple whole.

"Yeah!" Momo cheered. "I knew you could do it~!"

"You've got this, Koshimae!" Kintaro added, doing a victory dance.

"Kuh!" Migihashi quickly pulled himself together and hit back the balls, a look of worry creasing his forehead. _Ugh! _he thought._ I didn't think he would learn so quickly! If I can't end this fast…_

Ryoma smirked, tossing up yet another ball. "9 balls is nothing to brag about here!" he called. With a grunt of effort, he hit ten balls over to a very shocked Migihashi.

"E-EH?!" Migihashi sputtered, nearly dropping his racket. "_T-Ten_ balls?!" He gave one last push, trying to apply the techniques Ryoma had._ I can't lose!_

Everyone held their breath again, a collective gasp. Ryoma, on the other hand, smiled triumphantly. Nine balls landed on his court, but there had been an unmistakable bang from Migihashi's court, and the little yellow tennis ball now taunted Migihashi by his feet.

"4-40-30…" The umpire stammered, pale. He decided he would look up some pro matches and see if any of them even came close to what he had just seen from a_ 17_ year old and a _12_ year old. He was pretty sure Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer weren't capable of such…abilities. He also decided that he needed to watch the higher court matches more.

"No…" Migihashi said, looked slightly pained before his face relaxed into a smile. "He got a ball past my right side, just like he said he would. I lost!"

"M-Migihashi…" the people from Court 2 stammered.

They were interrupted by an announcement from the PA system.

"This is an announcement for all residents of the U-17 camp…" Kurobe started, from the camp's monitor room. "As per the coaches' suggestions, the 27 losing middle schoolers will now be re-accepted into this camp as Court 2."

"YEAH! WE DID IT!" All the middle schoolers cheered and gathered onto the court for a long awaited reunion.

"OISHI~!" Kikumaru cheered, finally getting his chance to jump (more like fly) onto his partner. He sure didn't hold back, and clamped onto Oishi like a vice. "I MISSED YOU!"

"E-Eiji! Calm down a bit!" Oishi chided, but the grin on his face showed that he didn't really mind.

Yuushi locked eyes with Gakuto and chuckled as Gakuto flashed him a confident grin. "I suppose the next match we play won't end the same way as it did last time…" he remarked, before going to talk to Kenya, who was practicing his balancing skills on the railing.

Liliadent Krauser took a seat next to Sakata on the grass, jumping up as he shot his leg out to trip him.

"AHAHAHA…ha." Sakata said dejectedly. "Aw…"

"You learn the timing after the first time." Liliadent replied nonchalantly, though feeling slightly smug. Never again was someone going to trip him. **"Welcome back."**

"Yuuta!"

Yuuta paled as a familiar voice reached his ears. "Er…Aniki." he replied, slightly stiffly. He relaxed and smiled when he realized that Fuji wasn't going to make any jokes about him and approached his brother, who was beaming. "It's been a while!"

"SHIRASHI~!" Kintaro yelled, feeling the need to yell at Shiraishi from the other side of the court rather than just going to talk to him. "WE MADE IT BACK FROM THE EDGE OF HELL~!"

"…Okaeri, Kin-chan." Shiraishi replied, smiling fondly.

"As always, their growth has been monstrous." Atobe remarked to Fuji, who chuckled and nodded in response before turning back to his brother.

"AKAYA!" A group of crows flew away in shock as Sanada's yell echoed. Most people didn't notice because they were too busy with their reunions, but Akaya sure did.

Akaya leaped about a mile into the air and pressed himself against the wall as Sanada cornered him. "F-Fukubuchou!? G-Good to see you too?" he flinched when he saw Sanada had his stern look times 100 on his face. "Did I do something in the one second we've seen each other?!"

"I…heard something about Ina Bauers…and you being afraid of ghosts…_I'm going to change that."_ Sanada replied, letting his Black Aura flare up and scare the living daylights out of Akaya.

"_EYAAAH!"_

~o0o~

"OCHIBI~!"

Kikumaru had finished glomping Oishi and had now moved on to Ryoma. Ryoma winced as Kikumaru proceeded to squeeze the life out of him, while wondering how Oishi had handled Eiji without suffocating for the past 3 years.

Oishi instantly snapped into mother hen mode, prying Kikumaru off. "H-He'll suffocate, Eiji!"

"EH?! G-Gomen, Ochibi!"

"Er…" Ryoma started, leaning against the railing and waiting for the black spots to fade from his vision. "It's ok, sempai." _Now that was one thing I didn't miss._

Momo burst out laughing. "This never gets old!" He looked around expectantly. "Ne, where's Tezuka-buchou?"

Kikumaru's smile faded instantly. "Well…" he started, trying not to look sad. "Get Fujiko and everyone else, kay? We have something we need to tell you."

* * *

"So it would seem the Black Jersey Revolution was once again a success…"

Kurobe rose from his seat, taking his eyes away from the glowing monitors from the numerous cameras that oversaw all of the camp's activities. "That makes the fifth success since the opening of this camp, and the third one that has completely succeeded without losing a single game."

"Frankly, they don't stand a chance against the Top ten." Tsuge said, pausing in the middle of a one finger push-up. "Especially against Byoudouin Houou. In fact, I don't believe anyone here is capable of such an opponent."

Kurobe thought for a minute, his face glowing an eerie blue-green from the light emitting from the monitors. "Yes, however,"

_-BAM!_

"AGH!"

"Ah, Saito. We were just discussing the progress the middle schoolers made." Kurobe said, greeting the newcomer with a nod.

"Ow…I see." Saito replied, rubbing his forehead. _You know, I think we need to invest in some taller doors!_ he thought to himself, groaning quietly.

"What did you think of it?" Tsuge probed, returning to the pushups.

"I think it was quite a success! The Revolution's definitely going on the list for next year."

"I was surprised; I didn't think Nyudo would agree to the training." Kurobe murmured thoughtfully, before turning away to shuffle through a heap of letters.

"He didn't." Saito said, shrugging. "It was Owner-san who convinced him to do it." He gently lowered himself into one of the comfy black chairs and leaned back with a content sigh.

"Would he do it next year, though?"

Saito sighed, resting his hands over his face wearily. "That's the only problem."

"What?"

"He said he wants no more to do with the U-17 camp anymore. This was the last time."

* * *

_Back on the courts:_

"Kikumaru-sempai made it sound so much more depressing than it was…" Ryoma remarked out loud, sighing. He had just left the gathering Seigaku had had where Kikumaru and Fuji had revealed that Tezuka had left. He had been sad, but the way Kikumaru had put it, it seemed like he had died. "Now, where could Tokugawa-san be?"

"_Hey!"_

A high schooler rushed over to Ryoma. His cheeks were flushed from running and his blond hair was messy from the evening wind. "There's a shuffle match between Court 2 and Court 3 right now! You're Court 2, right?"

Ryoma's eyes widened. "Really?" _I wasn't told_…he thought, sighing_. Maybe I leave too quickly._

"Yeah! Middle schoolers against middle schoolers! You should go support your court if you don't wanna move down!" he replied excitedly, while struggling to get his blond hair out of his blue eyes.

"Hmm." Ryoma started towards the courts while watching the high schooler leave for the building. A sudden thought went through his mind.

_Man, there's lots of foreigners here!_

_At Court 2:_

"Huah!"

_-BAM!_

"Nice Oishi~!" Kikumaru cheered, high fiving Oishi. "We won~!"

"W-Why are you guys playing together when you're on different teams!?" Momo and Kaido yelled, frustrated by their teammate's betrayal (of some sorts). "Oishi-sempai, you're going to give Court 3 the win!"

"Ahn, looks like we got it too!" Atobe replied, smirking. "Ore-sama beat Wakashi, Fuji beat Yuuta…"

"But Kintaro beat Shiraishi, and Kenya beat Yuushi…" Bunta continued, jumping from the bleachers onto the court. "Jackal and I had a draw, along with Yukimura and Sanada."

"Then Kadowaki lost to Atobe and Shinji beat Akira." Jackal said, counting their wins and losses on his fingers. "I think it all evened out in the end!"

"Then no one wins…?" Ryo said, seeming satisfied. "Well, no losses for us then!"

"That's too bad." Yukimura said, leaning against the walls of the bleachers. "None of you are good enough for Court 2." He said it seriously, but there was a playful gleam in his eyes that contradicted it.

"Ehh?!" Kintaro exclaimed. "Not even Koshimae?!"

"Speaking of which, where is Echizen?" Momo asked, looking around. "Geez, he's always going missing! He can't do that, he just can't!"

The said rookie popped up from the top of the bleachers, making his way down with a Ponta in hand. It had apparently been more important for him to grab a Ponta than fight for the safety of their victory court. "Chisu~"

"Echizen! Wow, you missed the whole thing!" Kai said with a sigh. "We already finished."

Atobe looked thoughtful. "Rather than just leaving it like this…" he started, "Let's have the brat play someone."

"Who?" Ryoma asked, smirking as he met Atobe's gaze. "You? Hmm, come to think of it, your hair's getting a little long, Monkey King. How about I help you with that? Or better, shave you bald again so you won't have to worry about it for a long time!"

Atobe gritted his teeth at the mention of the name he hadn't heard in months and the reminder of the loss of both the National match and his hair. "…Unfortunately Ore-sama has already played two matches, so it, in all honesty, wouldn't be fair."

"Hm…all the middle schoolers have already played, some coming from the other courts because there are more members on Court 2 than on Court 3." Yukimura added, chuckling. "Though I suppose it's alright to leave it like this. I was just joking when I said Court 2 wasn't good enough for any of you."

"Or one of us could play."

Everyone turned to the top of the bleachers where three members of Court 1 stood. Tokugawa, Tanegashima, and the blond high schooler that Ryoma had seen earlier.

"We're all members of Court 1." The blond high schooler explained. "And we thought we'd come and watch, though it seems to have played out differently."

"Echizen, why don't you play Tokugawa?" Tanegashima suggested, winking.

"…No." Tokugawa replied quietly. "It's not the time."

_Is he implying that I'm too weak?_ Ryoma thought, making a face. _Oh well, I wanted to wait too._

"Hm…" Tanegashima continued, scratching his head. "Then…I don't feel like playing today, so why don't you play Akechi here?" he gestured to the blond high schooler, who shrugged and went down to the court. Everyone else went to the bleachers as Ryoma and Akechi stretched a bit.

"Hey." Akechi said, stretching out his arms. "Quite a nice match you played."

Ryoma paused, looking closely at him. "Hey…" he said, something tugging on his mind. "Are you related to Kabuto?"

Akechi blinked. "No. Why?"

"You're blond." Ryoma replied, shrugging. _Though he doesn't have glasses and his hair is completely straight, unlike Kabuto's. Not to mention his eyes are blue, not brown... _

Akechi gave him a strange look. _Dude, blonds aren't that rare…_he thought. _I've seen at least 4 here…Hm, well, maybe they are. But hey, I've even seen blue heads and silver heads here!_

"But you're-" Akechi started, but sweat dropped when he saw Ryoma had already walked away. "Never mind then…"

"I'll be the ref." Yukimura said, smiling as he took his place in the seat, U-17 jersey draped around his shoulders. "The matches weren't too long because it's getting late, so no tiebreakers. 10 point match, Court 1's Akechi to serve!"

"Do you serve the whole game?" Ryoma asked, shaking hands with Akechi at the net.

"No, we switch every second serve. Think of it like a tiebreak…but without the needed 2 point lead." Akechi replied, walking away. "So basically, the score can be won at 10-9. The challenger serves first though. I asked Yukimura-kun."

"Got it."

"Good luck!"

Ryoma smirked, going into position. "I won't need it. Time for my second win of the day!"

"You make it sound easier than it will be." Akechi replied, tossing up the ball. "Go!"

Ryoma gripped his racket tighter as he hit the ball back, before making a quick decision and switching it to his left hand. He realized it wouldn't be wise to underestimate Court 1 like that.

"Hmm, interesting." Akechi said, nodding before feinting and hitting a drop shot. It was an extremely good feint, one he did while in the middle of hitting the ball, and Ryoma was slightly startled by it.

Ryoma hit a lob, hitting it high over Akechi's head. Akechi rushed back and reached the ball just as it landed. He leaned back on one foot, pulling his racket as far back as he could before hitting the ball with his frame. The ball fell into a sharp slice spin, curving like a Snake shot before landing without a rebound like a Tsubame Gaeshi.

"1-0, Akechi!"

"Heh…that's a pretty good move you've got there." Ryoma said.

"Isn't it?" Akechi replied, smiling. "I call it the Cobra."

"That sounds like a move Kaido-sempai would have." Ryoma replied. "Hit it to me again!"

Akechi smiled and served again, the ball spinning wildly as it hit the ground before bouncing forward towards the net quickly, another move of his. Ryoma had to dive forward to reach the ball before it hit the net.

"Ugh!" Ryoma winced, but he had still managed to get a good whack on the ball, and it nearly zipped past Akechi.

Akechi leaned back and spun forward to hit the ball. "Good job with my Whirlwind."

"Whirlwind?" Ryoma asked, executing a Drive B. "That serve?"

"Oh no, not that." Akechi replied, touching his racket on the ground and hitting the ball in an arc from down to up. _"This."_

The ball spun in circles on the ground, creating not only the illusion of multiple balls but a 'whirlwind' of dust. Ryoma turned away as the dust flew around him, closing his eyes. Ryoma focused on the ball's whereabouts with his hearing, and managed to hit the ball as it spun sharply to his left, nearly touching the ground.

"The rebound's hard to predict." he muttered, choosing a Cool Drive as Akechi lobbed the ball back. He leaped onto the referee's chair with Yukimura chuckling in amusement as he smashed the ball.

The ball spun wildly on Akechi's racket, and it stunned him as the ball flew off it and nearly into his face. It did, however, fly into the bleachers and hit Tanishi in the cheek, causing a string of curse words to erupt from Higa's giant and a somewhat apologetic glance from Ryoma.

"1-1!"

"This is gonna take forever." Akechi sighed, twirling his racket around his wrist. "Oh, by the way, that serve before was my Wind Whip. But I've got more up my sleeve."

"Is that so?" Ryoma asked, smirking. "Then tell me why your moves are easy to return."

Akechi smiled, one that was filled with a calm and deadly confidence. "Because I only hit them with 50% of my power."

* * *

_-BAM!_

"7-7!"

"God, you're still keeping up!" Akechi groaned. He had hoped to shake Ryoma off with his more powerful moves, but Ryoma had fought back with his other moves, including Samurai Drive, which was proving annoying to return. It was also annoying for the camp because there were now about 12 ball halves scattered around and about.

"You're not bad yourself." Ryoma replied, smirking as he hit a Twist Serve.

Akechi returned it with no problem and focused on hitting another Whirlwind.

Ryoma closed his eyes and waited to hear the ball's rebound.

It didn't come.

"8-7, Akechi!"

_What?_ Ryoma opened his eyes and was surprised to see that the ball had simply failed to rebound and was just sitting there.

Akechi laughed. "That always works!" he chortled. "I hit the ball with rebounds all the time, then 'bam'! No rebound!"

Ryoma rolled his eyes. _I'll return it before it rebounds._ he thought. "Go again."

Ryoma soon found that returning the ball before it rebounded wasn't an option, as the ball had too much of a spin for him to return properly.

"Out! 9-7, Akechi!"

"Yikes, just one more point!" Kenya said, biting his lip. "This match has been so close!"

"At least it's not as suspenseful as the one against Migihashi-san." Zaizen replied. "At least we won't get kicked out if we lose."

"Uh, have you forgotten?" Kenya countered. "We get kicked out of our court if Echizen loses this!"

"…" Tokugawa continued to be silent, though he found himself smiling a bit. _Show us the results of your training, Echizen._

"Here's your opponent's second match point of the day!" Akechi said, serving another Wind Whip.

Ryoma dove forward, but stopped in his tracks when the ball rebounded normally. "Crap!" he muttered, barely hitting the ball. _He's tricky! _he cursed. _He disguises his moves perfectly!_

"This Akechi is proving to be an extremely tough opponent…" Renji mused.

"What do you mean?" Momo asked.

"For every single move he has, he can apply the same motion but can somehow nullify the move's effect. In other words, use the same motions to create a perfectly normal shot. Of course, there _are_ some changes, however, they are far too subtle to notice in such a short amount of time."

"Just like that Reiji guy from Jousei Shounan with his Mirage!" Taka exclaimed.

"Exactly. Echizen will have to react extremely quickly to even keep up in this match." Renji added. "The easier thing to do would be to place the ball where Akechi-san can't reach."

"In other words…" Akaya said. "Use special moves? Like the Samurai Drive?"

Renji nodded. "It may be energy consuming though. Echizen is very lucky the match is only 10 points. He would be at a disadvantage if it were a full match."

"9-8, Echizen! Akechi leads!"

"Aw man!" Akechi groaned. "I was so close!"

Ryoma sighed. _Me too…in a bad way!_ Out loud, he said, "I have moves of my own."

"That's obvious!" Akechi grumbled. "Ok, serve!"

Ryoma decided to try out a serve he had been eyeing for a while. As the ball hit the ground it didn't rebound, but instead rolled backwards, rolling gently into the net. Everyone fell silent at the Zero-Shiki serve.

"That guy…" Momo started, grin stretching out on his face. "That guy really learns fast!"

Yukimura smiled, impressed. "9-9!"

Ryoma smirked. "Now it's time for me to win."

Akechi chuckled. "You don't wanna have a 100 point tiebreak? Cause I know we can get there if we really go full out. I don't mind playing into the night."

Ryoma paled slightly. _"No."_ He had had enough experiences with 100 point tiebreaks, as he shared a look with Atobe, who looked weary himself and had a hand on his forehead. And with the pace the match was going at, the match wouldn't go into the night but into the following _morning._

"Alright, alright, but I'm not giving you the win!" Akechi yelled, serving.

Ryoma grinned. "Didn't think so." This time the serve was also a normal one, but Ryoma had been better prepared. Akechi lobbed the ball up next. Ryoma hit another Cool Drive, but this time Akechi returned it easily and applied a spin so that the ball curved sharply to the left.

"What else have you got?" Akechi challenged, lobbing the ball afterwards.

Ryoma smirked. "I'll show you." He hit the ball in what looked like a throwing motion, kind of like a serve, though with some changes. Akechi froze dead in his tracks before leaping forward.

The ball soared over the net but stopped short shortly after, as if it had hit a wall. It fell straight down.

"…Game and Match, Echizen! 10-8!" Yukimura announced, smiling.

"Nice!" Harukaze cheered. "Second win of the day!"

"…What was that?" Hiroshi asked, getting a shrug from Niou. "He never showed or mentioned it to us."

"That brat…" Atobe sighed, shaking his head. "His potential is limitless."

"That's like a reverse Gate of Hecatonchires!" Oishi exclaimed. "Where'd he learn that? Fuji, did you teach him the Gate of Hecatonchires?" he asked, turning to the brunette.

Fuji shook his head, chuckling. "The spin he applies is very different from my fifth counter. I think he created it himself."

"Looks like you learned…something…from your time in the mountains." Akechi remarked, shaking hands with Ryoma at the net. He shook his head in mild disbelief. "That was nuts."

"Well, not every match can have multiple balls. That was called the Frozen Halt, by the way." Ryoma replied, smiling. "You're not that bad."

"You're not so bad yourself." Akechi said. He turned to the bleachers. "Sorry Court 3, but your super rookie here outsmarted me! Court 2, congratulations! You've managed to keep your victory court for longer than three hours!" he joked.

Tanegashima and Kanata clapped, joined by a nod from Tokugawa and a grunt of approval from Oni. On the top of the bleachers, the rest of the previous Court 3 members appeared, also clapping and smiling in approval.

"From the high schoolers," Tanegashima started. "Se-no~!*"

"Welcome to the U-17 camp!"

~o0o~

_Later that night:_

"Oi, Echizen!" Momo called, from the top of the stairs of Court 2. "Hurry back to the main courts soon! We'll be getting our dorm rooms!"

"U-isuu!" Ryoma replied, watching Momo run off. Everyone else had left the courts, but he had wanted a moment alone, mainly to think. About the fact that they were finally back at the U-17 camp, after days of training in the mountains. About the times with Coach Nyudo, and the odd adventures (especially the one with the bar lounge). The times with the high schoolers, Sasabe, Kabuto, Matsudaira, Yugito.

And the memories.

Including the one that had revealed the Frozen Halt.

_Flashback:_

Snow…

_Bored, he randomly hummed a Christmas carol. _Maybe I should have gone and joined the fight after all._ He was about to stand up when Momo ran up and shoved a handful of snow down Kaido's pants, causing the snake to howl, hiss, and curse in ways that really shouldn't be heard by anyone, let alone seventh graders, as Oishi was quick to point out._

_"Never mind then...Well, maybe if I'm careful…" Ryoma peered around the corner of the shed cautiously, only to see Yuuta get beamed in the face by a snow Hadoukyuu from Taka. The unfortunate middle schooler was sent soaring through the air until he landed face first into a snowdrift, K.O.'d. How was the snow already firm enough for that?_

_"…Too dangerous."_

Snow…

Ugh! I can't stop thinking about the snow! _Ryoma frowned, glaring momentarily at the snow._ What's so special about it? Ok fine, I guess I kinda like it...it's kinda nice...

But…

Flashback:

"_Hai~! So look, I throw up this tennis ball like thiiiisss~" A six-year old Ryoma bounded onto a tennis court, which was surrounded with snow-covered trees. "Now look, look!" He tossed up the ball, though a little awkwardly. "You're looking, right?"_

"_Yup!" Another voice. _

"_And then I twist my racket around like this…and," The small Ryoma frowned in concentration, then quickly got the ball on his racket, and moved his arms so that the ball was hit off in a throwing motion. His arms moved so fast they were a blur._

-Wham!

"_It does this! Look!" The tennis ball soared in a straight line, flying over the net…..but stopped short. It seemed to hover uncertainly in the air before dropping lightly onto the ground. Somehow the irregular way Ryoma had hit the ball was enough to create an irregular spin, which stopped the ball mid-flight._

"_Wow, Ryoma, that's really cool!" A clapping sound followed. "I love it! This is talent, really amazing! ...Though it defies logic."_

"_Logic?"_

"_Ha ha, no, it's nothing!" More laughter. _

"_What should I call it?"_

"_What do you think?"_

"_Right…then…I don't know." Ryoma replied, pouting._

_A shadow patted his head, smoothing down his damp hair. "How about Frozen Halt?"_

_Ryoma beamed._ "_Great! I'm gonna show - next! Tennis is really fun! I love it as much as snow!" _

_It was snowing._

"_Me too!"_

_Flashback end_

_"What was that…" Ryoma murmured, shaking slightly. The memory had hit him like a train whoosing through his mind._

A few moments later:

"ECHIZEN!"

_"Eh?"_

-wham!

_Ryoma wanted to think more, but couldn't quite focus because of the mound of water slush dripping down his face._

_"GOT YOU, ECHIZEN~!" Momo yelled, laughing. "IF YOU WANNA GET REVENGE, COME OUT AND JOIN US! YOU CAN'T" he paused for a breath - he was yelling at the top of his lungs. "JUST SIT OUT! YOU JUST CAN'T!" Everyone else paused and waited expectantly._

_Ryoma sighed. _I guess I'll just think about it later...

_Flashback end_

"Well, it was pretty helpful in this match…" Ryoma said out loud. _…Though I still don't understand anything._

"...Apparently people who talk to themselves are smarter."

Ryoma started, looking up to see Akechi walk to the bench and sit down next to him. "Akechi-san? What are you doing here?"

Akechi sweat-dropped. "Uh, I live here. I also happened to play a match here about 3 minutes ago."

Ryoma nodded absentmindly, not knowing what else to say.

Akechi laughed, breaking the silence. "It's me, Kabuto."

Ryoma took a closer look, surprised. "…Are you serious?"

Kabuto took out a pair of glasses and put them on after removing a pair of contacts from his eyes, revealing them to be not blue, but amber brown. "That help?" he asked, grinning. "You look so bewildered. Don't worry, my hands were clean." he added jokingly, storing the contacts away in a case.

Ryoma blinked, then shook his head in disbelief. "But how?"

Kabuto smiled. "You guess."

"…The high schoolers came back from the mountains?"

"Nope. Not so soon. C'mon, put two and two together." Kabuto probed.

Ryoma looked at him, a suspicion rising up. "Could you be…"

Kabuto gave him a thumbs up. "Yeah! I'm a middle schooler!"

_To be continued_

* * *

**I have an explanation for Kabuto really being a middle schooler, lol. Sorry, but this OC's gonna be in this story for a long time . I think I did say that at some point though, probably chapter 2, that OCs were going to be a pretty decently big part of the fanfic XD *checks* Oh crap no, I just said I would be having both new and old characters…and…well, it makes some sense. It just wasn't clear. (*ducks back into bomb shelter*)**

**I really didn't want the chapter to get this long, but I needed to get Kabuto's reappearal in this chapter. I didn't want to build up another chapter just on that XP lol, I'm so nice to my OC. **

**Next chapter, daily life begins at the camp after the middle schoolers start settling down! …And something else! (not being specific because of my epic prediction fails XP)**

***Se-no is the japanese version of...well, you know how people go "One, two!" before starting a song or something? It's that.**

**Thanks for reading~! Reviews are greatly appreciated!**


	14. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning

**Hey everybody, this is chapter 14 of RTT!**

**So, continuing what I was saying last chapter, the most likely yaoi pair would be Pillar Pair, while the second and third most likely pairs would be Edo pair (Tokugawa/Ryoma) and Bicycle Pair! So yeah, but for any hardcore yaoi fans, I'm sorry but this won't meet your standards XP T rating stuff's ok, but it's not going **_**anywhere**_** near the M section XD **

**Hope you enjoy!**

**I meant to update earlier, but a few days ago my teachers gave me an avalanche of hw, so that ruined everything...XP**

Chapter 14: Red skies in morning, sailor's warning

_Previously:_

_Akechi laughed. "Not just that. It's me, Kabuto."_

_Ryoma was stunned. "…Are you serious?"_

_Kabuto took out a pair of glasses and put them on after removing a pair of contacts from his eyes, revealing them to be not blue, but amber brown. "That help?" he asked, grinning. "You look so bewildered. Don't worry, my hands were clean." he added jokingly, storing the contacts away._

_Ryoma blinked, then shook his head in mild disbelief. "But how?"_

_Kabuto smiled, taking a seat beside him. "You guess."_

"…_The high schoolers came back from the mountains?"_

"_Nope. Not so soon. C'mon, put two and two together." Kabuto probed._

_Ryoma looked at him, a suspicion rising up. "Could you be…"_

_Kabuto gave him a thumbs up. "Yeah! I'm a middle schooler!"_

Present:

"But…" Ryoma started, still confused. "There were only supposed to be 50 middle schoolers…"

Kabuto shrugged, brushing his blond bangs out of his eyes without success. "Yeah, but aren't there 52 of you? With Hikaru-kun and Yuuji-kun? I didn't see much argument over those additions…Oh, never mind, 51, since Tezuka-san's gone, but you get my drift."

"But you were in the high schooler group…" Ryoma pointed out. "Not to mention the losing group."

Kabuto looked embarrassed. "Oh, that. You see, we didn't get kicked out because we didn't get a ball. We were late."

"We? And what?"

"Ah, Yugito, Himura, Akana, Kei, and Daisuke are all middle schoolers too."

"You know," Ryoma sighed. "You could have told me."

Kabuto sniffed, giving Ryoma a sad face that made him flinch. "I tried to before our match, but then you walked away and ignored me and I died a little on the inside."

Ryoma rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm not ignoring you now."

Kabuto took a deep breath. "OK! It all started out when the coaches gave out the invitations. They gave them to Seigaku, Hyotei, Shitenhoji, Rikkaidai, and Higa. They also put in a few members from St. Rudolph, Fudomine, Yamabuki, Rokkaku, Makinofuji, and St. Icarus. All the schools sent their forms back and sealed in a spot…except for one."

Ryoma looked at him expectantly.

Kabuto chuckled. "Higa. Their coach didn't want to pay the fare to get them to the camp."

Ryoma smirked. "For some reason, that's not surprising." It really wasn't. The coach didn't really show a love for his team. Well, maybe he did. But it sure didn't show when it came to transport fees.

"The coaches at U-17 assumed that Higa wasn't going, so they needed a new school ASAP. They decided to poke around and see what they could find. Anyways, I'm from the school with the most foreigners, the one I didn't mention before."

"…Nagoya Seitoku." Ryoma finished. "…I think that was it." he muttered, surprised that he actually remembered.

"Yup! I never had the chance to talk to Liliadent-kun though. He's a little scary…"

"…But you weren't on the National team." Ryoma pointed out. "Right?"

Kabuto sighed, pursing his lips. "Wasn't on the tennis team at all."

"Then how could you get selected if the coaches didn't see you play?"

"The six of us didn't want to play on a tennis team because, well, we didn't feel like it." Kabuto didn't offer more explanation to it. "But one day our schoolmate's father wanted us to go to his tennis club and help out, since he needed help coaching some little kids. Well, we agreed because we were good friends with the schoolmate, and we hadn't played in a while. I expected to be a ball boy and maybe demonstrate a few swings, but we ended up having to play a full blown match for 4 hours!"

"You never got the details for the job, did you?" Ryoma said, raising an eyebrow.

Kabuto groaned. "Anyways, we played against each other, and wouldn't you know it, Coach Saito walks by while we're playing. Apparently he helps out there occasionally."

"So he decided to get you guys in?"

Kabuto nodded. "He was even happier when he learned we were from Nagoya Seitoku, a school already on the interest list. So we got our forms and all was good. We were nervous, of course, but Coach Saito assured us we were good."

_You think?_ Ryoma thought, making a face. _You got onto Court 1!_

"I invaded Court 1 and took some random dude's spot, if you were wondering." Kabuto added, reading the look on Ryoma's face. "So did Yugito. The rest of the guys are on Court 4 for now."

"Ok." Ryoma replied. "And then…"

"Right." Kabuto continued, his voice taking on a sour tone. "This part sucked. First of all, Higa got a last minute ride. I think someone said it was something involving a pirate raft, but I probably heard wrong. Anyways, they handed their forms in the same time as us! U-17 forgot to tell Higa that they weren't considering them anymore."

"…So…" Ryoma said, taking in the info. "Now they had accepted too many people."

"That wasn't the real problem," Kabuto continued. "Coach Saito assumed we were on the tennis team in Nagoya Seitoku, but that we hadn't been seen by them because Nagoya Seitoku changed their line-up so often. Well, were they wrong!"

"So what was wrong?"

"The coaches sent a letter to the big dudes telling them that they were only having 50 middle schoolers. Well, it wouldn't have panned out right, but it would have been close to 50 if we had gone and not Higa. It was getting late when they asked us to come so I think they stopped caring about it. But the main reason was because we weren't known in the middle schooler band."

"So basically, the middle schoolers had to stand out…" Ryoma muttered. "With something like the Nationals."

"You got it. They couldn't let us in as middle schoolers because we were too unknown. Coach Saito thought he could get us in by saying we were on the team of the school in the semis, but that didn't work after we said we weren't on the team at all. But, Coach Saito got us in in the end by saying we were just another group of high schoolers to the big guys. You see, you just have to be a good player to be accepted as a high schooler! No need to be in a major tournament and such."

"But..." Ryoma started. "How did you get in as a high schooler if everyone knew your age?"

Kabuto beamed. "Fake ID!"

Ryoma raised his eyebrows and Kabuto laughed. "I'm just kidding. Only the coaches knew our ages. When they sent the final report of all the U-17 players to the big guys, after everything was finalized with us, Coach Saito raised our age up by a few years. I mean, sure, they could check. But I don't think they'd go through all the trouble. So if a high schooler or anyone asks you, I'm 17!"

"Geez." Ryoma sighed. "That's confusing."

"I heard there was a huge argument about whether or not the middle schoolers were even going to get accepted in the first place." Kabuto replied. "Having around only 50 middle schoolers was the compromise they worked out."

"Yeah." Ryoma replied. "But why didn't you just stay here, at the camp? You said the high schoolers only had to be good to be here."

"You see," Kabuto said, tapping the wooden bench they were on with his fingers absentmindedly. "The road our cab was on was blocked because of an accident, so we arrived late. Really late. So late, that they had already sent down the balls and kicked the people who didn't get one out by the time we came."

"You didn't go with Liliadent-san?"

"I don't think he knows we exist. He hitched a ride with Sakata-kun."

"And?"

"None of it was our fault, so the coaches said we could go to the mountains and train." Kabuto said, grinning. "Which we took! I honestly think they felt a little bad."

"Hmm." Ryoma said. "So what are you now?"

"Uh..." Kabuto started sheepishly. "A high schooler, I guess. Anyways, that's enough about me. Get your dorm key and go to bed." Kabuto continued, standing up. "Super Rookie-kun."

Ryoma smirked. "Good night. And…"

"Hm?"

"Welcome back!"

* * *

_Over at the dorms:_

"YEAH! YEAH! I'M IN A ROOM WITH KOSHIMAE~!"

Everyone within a 5 mile radius of Kintaro plugged their ears and winced as Kintaro's voice rocketed around the hall. All of the middle schoolers had gathered (save Ryoma) after the match with Court 2 to get their new dorm number and key. Many people were shifted around to accommodate the 27 new players, but it had all turned out fine in the end.

By now, most people had gotten their keys and left for bed and now only all of Shitenhoji, Yuuta and Mizuki remained to get their keys or just to chat.

"Kin-chan…" Shiraishi started, hand on Kintaro's head. "Use your inside voice, alright? You're disturbing everyone. Most have a dorm in this hallway, you know."

"Hai…" Kintaro said, keeping a wary eye on Shiraishi's bandaged arm. For some reason, no one had ever told him that the bandages covered a bar of gold, not a poison arm, though both stories would have probably pleased him. Also, Shiraishi probably didn't need the threat to keep him under control. He was just Shiraishi that way.

"But it's great, isn't it?" Kintaro asked, eyes shining. "I can hang out with Koshimae more!"

Nearby, Yuuta looked dismayed at his room number. It was the same as Kintaro's. "…Mizuki-san…" he whispered to Mizuki. "Think I'll live?"

Mizuki chuckled, though deep down he was relieved he hadn't gotten a room with anyone noisy. "You should be fine, Liliadent-kun will be there too. He's a calm one. While you're there, try and get some info on their weaknesses, ne?"

The mentioned first year was in his dorm room at the moment, savoring his last few moments of freedom before it was all taken away from him.

Yuuta looked a little happier. "Yeah-"

_-WHAM!_

"AAAGH!" Yuuta went flying as a white brick slammed into his head. Another soon followed, knocking out Mizuki, who fell to the ground. The other middle schoolers spun around in shock before dropping to the ground on instinct, on the alert for the assassin.

"Crap!" Kenya yelped, covering his head with his hand. "We should've spent the match time reviewing what to do in an emergency! What do we do during a Code Red situation?!"

"Doesn't it depend on the situation?" Zaizen asked, kneeling beside Kenya with a sleepy yawn.

"When there's a killer around!" Kenya hissed. "Isn't that obvious?!"

"Evacuate?" Zaizen offered.

"Don't you want to stay inside if there's a killer lurking around?" Kenya retorted, edging towards a door. "Idiot!"

"Why would you do that, Kenya-san?" Zaizen asked. "You'll be stuck with the killer, right?"

"BUT-"

Shiraishi retreated out of the dorm he had jumped into and put a hand on Kenya's shoulder. "Just keep calm, Kenya. I think it was nothing...much."

_Shouldn't you have hidden in one of the dorm rooms if there was a killer, Kenya?_ Gin wondered, retreating from his own dorm to join them, but kept it to himself. He had a feeling Kenya would scream at him if he mentioned it.

"He's right, I-I don't think anything's up." Yuuji said, clutching onto Koharu nervously. "Should I imitate an alarm?"

"Where'd the white things go?" Kenya asked, looking around the seemingly empty room, save the other people, who had by now all popped back out of whatever room they were hiding in. A few other middle schoolers from the dorms were there too, confused over the sudden yells.

"Maybe a light fell?" Shiraishi offered. "Or two?"

"_**BURNING!**__"_ Everyone's jaw dropped as Taka stormed into the hall, wielding another white thing before throwing it. Their eyes went even wider when they realized the 'white thing' that K.O'ed Yuuta and Mizuki with a single hit was actually a pillow.

A _pillow._

"What in the world is in that stuffing…?" Shiraishi mused, picking up the pilllow Taka had just thrown. "Looks like a normal- WHOA!"

He jumped into his dorm room as a stampede entered the hall, followed by everyone else. Akutsu was raging, hurling pillows left and right, while the people he was chasing (mainly high schoolers) tried in vain to defend themselves. Shiraishi sighed and decided to just stay inside his dorm room, where peaceful people like Yukimura and Fuji were.

"What's going on?" Yukimura asked, turning away from the plant he had been discussing with Fuji. "It's been awfully loud ever since you jumped in here."

"Pillow fight." Shiraishi replied with a grin. "You guys want to go?"

"Hm, I think I'm fine." Fuji replied with a smile. "I need to water my cactus."

"Well..." Shiraishi started, smiling innocently. "Yuuta-kun got knocked out by someone."

"...I'm going out for some exercise." Fuji said, his frozen smile sending a dark chill down Shiraishi's spine.

~o0o~

"108th HADOKYUU!" Gin roared, bashing a nearby high schooler into a wall. A few random high schoolers had gone downstairs to complain about the noise, but now severely regretted it.

"**SOBAGARA!*"** Ryo yelled, popping out from behind a door to a dorm room. From the door Eiji and Oishi also appeared, using Synchro and avoiding the flying pillows with ease.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" A U-17 staff member yelled, running into the hall. However, he was barely noticed.

"…**Looks like my peace has been destroyed."** Liliadent murmured, picking up the pillow from his bed and stepping out of his room, aiming it at Ryo. **"Southern Cross!"**

"Wah!" Ryo leaped out of the way and the pillow hit the staff member, pinning him against the wall and causing a few dents and cracks.

"**I missed."** Liliadent sighed. **"The power and range of these pillows are quite weak, compared to the ones at home. Guess I'll have to try again."**

"Laser Beam!"

_-BAM!_

"GAAH!" This time Harukaze got the blow, crumpling to the floor.

"Hmm." Hiroshi started, pushing up his glasses. "I suppose only people like Sanada-kun could-"

-_WHAM!_

"AH!"

"Puri." Niou smirked, having replicated the Laser Beam into the back of Hiroshi's head. By now, most people had left their rooms to join in the fight. Then again, it was pretty hard to not notice a pillow fight in the hallway outside of your own room.

"Too bad you can't defend against your own-" He suddenly crumpled to the ground, along with about 3 other people, causing the rest of the middle schoolers to freeze, this time _really_ looking for an assassin.

"Well, it certainly looks like it worked." Yukimura mused, stepping into the hall. He had been standing in the doorway for most of the fight, but finally decided to join...with a little welcome surprise.

_Yips?!_ The middle schoolers realized. _How fair is that?!_

"It's not bothering anyone, right?" Yukimura asked cheerfully. Everyone glared in response.

"DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!" Sanada rushed into the hall, joined by Renji and anyone else who wasn't there. Now every middle schooler was either in the hallway, or the dorms surrounding it. "GET THEM!"

Yukimura chuckled, lightly tossing a pillow. "Looks like I can't have a simple pillow fight, eh?"

* * *

"Wizardry…Tightrope walk!"

"OW!"

"Sixth counter…Hoshi Hanabi!"

"AGH!"

"..." Ryoma peered through the peephole of his dorm door, out of sight and wondering why his sempais were always so much more immature then he thought. Heck, Sanada and Kite were at each other's necks now, wielding pillows as if they were knifes. But by the way half of the middle schoolers were unconscious on the ground, it might have been true.

"DORIA!" Momo yelled, Dunk Smashing a pillow at Kaido, who avoided, fsshed, and replied with a Snake. The pillow caught on a light fixture and a shower of feathers filled the air as the pillow ripped.

"HAH!" Shiraishi yelled, catching a pillow Fuji threw and throwing it back. To his surprise, the pillow stopped before even making it halfway.

Fuji smiled. "Gate of Hecatonchires."

"Not fair, not fair!" Shiraishi laughed good-naturedly. "I'll just-"

"URAAH!" Akutsu yelled, still on his rampage. He had left for a few minutes to gather more pillows, and was now hurling them at everyone again. Shiraishi ducked back into his dorm room, followed by Fuji, deciding that it wasn't worth the risk anymore, and not just the danger.

**"This is quite the fight, isn't it?"** Liliadent remarked, protected from behind his door as Yuushi fell victim to Akutsu's onslaught next, before Akutsu himself was taken out by Ryoma, who was standing next to Liliadent. Ryoma stood in the doorway and popped out to attack anyone who wasn't on guard before ducking back inside the dorm.

_Smart. _Liliadent thought. _It's good to stay hiding so we don't get caught, but we do need to take down our enemies. Ryoma's battle strategy is well thought. I will take note of it in the future._

**"You know..."** Liliadent started, the edges of his mouth tilting up. **"You remind me a bit of a sniper, Ryoma."**

Atobe stepped into the hall next, wearing a deep purple robe over his silk pajamas. "Kabaji!" he ordered, the said middle schooler emerging from his room. "Get me a mountain of pi- Kabaji?!"

To his surprise, Kabaji ignored him and walked in the opposite direction, approaching none other than Niou, who had imitated him after recovering from Yukimura's attack. Unfortunately for Atobe, Kabaji had seen Niou face to face first.

"Kabaji!" Niou/Atobe said, smirking. "Go get me a mountain of pillows!"

"Usu..."

"Ha ha!" Kintaro laughed, picking up a pillow and racing towards the heart of the action. "Who forgot about me?!"

_Not again!_ The middle schoolers, mainly the ones who had been in the snowball fight thought.

"EVERYBODY RUN!"

"SUPER ULTRA GREAT DELICIOUS, DAISHA-"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Everyone froze mid fight. They stood, half of them unconscious on the ground, others poised to throw a pillow, with feathers floating around and littering the ground, as a group of U-17 staff stood there in shock, including dorm manager Tsuge. A broken light fixture and a few sparks also added a nice bit to the effect.

"Er…i-it's not what you think it is…" Kenya said shakily, holding up his hands.

"We…" Marui started, bubble gum falling out of his mouth. "Were…"

Tsuge's face raged and turned as red as a tomato.

"GO SIT THE SEIYA* RIGHT NOW!"

~o0o~

_Well…_Ryoma thought, still hidden out of sight behind his door. _I guess it was a good thing I didn't get too into it. _He shared a grin and high five with Liliadent.

"Mada mada dane!"

* * *

_The next day in Room 206:_

"RISE AND SHINE ~!"

_Oh god_. Ryoma thought, burying his face into his pillow. He could hear the groans from Yuuta, who was in the bunk bed opposite him, and a quiet huff from the bed above him.

"C'MON, C'MON! THE SOONER YOU GET UP, THE SOONER WE CAN GO OUT AND PRACTICE!"

"We have all day for that!" Yuuta yelled sleepily, voice muffled by his pillow. "It's barely bright out!" _I knew this was going to be bad!_ he thought, fuming_. Alright, info piece for Mizuki-san number one…never sleep in the same room as Tooyama Kintaro!_

"…." Liliadent quietly pulled the blanket over his face, blocking out the dim but bright-to-sleepy-eyes morning sunlight. "Please draw the curtains, Tooyama..."

Kintaro stopped, looking at them unhappily. "Why are you guys so low energy?!"

"What's there to be energetic about?" Yuuta snapped, turning over to face the wall.

"KOSHIMAE~!" Kintaro yelled, hopping over to Ryoma's bed. "C'mon, what about you? Play a match against me~!"

Ryoma scowled at him before pulling the blanket over his head as well. "We're at a tennis camp, Tooyama. Like Yuuta-san said, we have all day for this."

"…" Kintaro pouted. "Ok, but all of you owe me a match later!" He ran off in search of an opponent, his footsteps echoing loudly in the hall.

"That guy…why did fate have to give me a room with him?!" Yuuta grumbled, snuggling back into his warm blanket. He was snoring within seconds.

"**Ryoma…"** Liliadent asked sleepily. **"What time is it?"**

Ryoma rubbed his eyes blearily and grabbed the clock on the bedside table. **"…7."**

"**We should get up at 9 for breakfast."** Liliadent yawned, then went to close the curtains.** "Mornings better not always be this way, or I'm requesting a single again."**

"So late…" Ryoma muttered. _Guess that's cause of people like us who like to sleep_. **"Ok."** Ryoma replied. **"Thanks."**

"**Umhmm."**

Ryoma slept for another hour before crawling silently out of bed and going out, not being able to go back to sleep for long. He was too restless over yesterday's events. He grabbed a sweater, shirt, and a pair of shorts to change into, heading into the nearest washroom to change.

The halls were completely empty, giving it a creepy but peaceful feel. Ryoma kept going until he reached the courts. He was feeling restless about the 1st stringers. And besides, there was nothing like a good morning practice in the crisp, fresh air. Maybe he _would_ go find Kintaro, though by some yells down the hall, it would seem some angry middle schoolers had already found the energetic redhead.

_9 o clock:_

"Itadakimasu~!"

"Kintaro, try this!" Momo encouraged, stabbing a morsel of steak with his fork. "It's dripping in-" he froze, looking warily at Oishi, who had visibly tensed up at a nearby table. He had exploded the day before when Momo had said that the beef was dripping in its juices. "Er, it tastes good!"

"Thanks, Momo-chan-sempai!" Kintaro replied, grinning. "This is…." Kintaro stopped mid-chew, frowning. "…Not that good…"

"Ah? You serious?!" Momo then tried a piece himself. "You're right! It's a little dry today…" he agreed, making a face. "Maybe they had a problem-"

"Ohayo, minna-san!" Coach Saito walked into the cafeteria before stopping short in surprise. For the first time, he had actually remembered to duck when going through a door. Before he could take another step, a U-17 staff member ran up to Saito and whispered urgently in his ear.

"Hm?" Saito asked. "Ok, I see." He sighed, making his way back out and somehow remembering to duck again. "Huh..." he muttered. "That's weird."_ I'll take it though!_ he thought, whistling. _No need for my daily ice pack today!_

"So later on, will you train with me, Yukimura-buchou?" Akaya asked excitedly, turning to the blunette sitting beside him. A few members of Rikkaidai (not Sanada) were sitting with him. They were basically his support group after Sanada had...taught Akaya a lesson the day before. Long story short, it had been a long day for Akaya.

"All right, why not?." Yukimura replied, sipping a cup of green tea. "It'll be a good warm-up."

"Nh?! J-Just a warm up?!" Akaya said, making a face.

"Don't get your seaweed head all worked up, Bakaya. Buchou was only joking." Marui replied, rolling his eyes. He then sighed and pushed away his half-eaten slice of strawberry cake wearily.

"Marui?" Jackal asked, looking at his partner. "You're not finishing your cake? That was only your first slice!"

"Hm…" Marui said, laying his head down on his arm. "I don't have an appetite for sweets right now…"

His table members looked at him worriedly. Even Yukimura looked worried. It wasn't like the sweets resident of Rikkaidai to turn down cake, especially the first ones of the day. At first, it was only his way of keeping his stamina up, but Marui had long ago grown to adore sweets since. "Are you feeling ok?"

"Yeah…"

~o0o~

"Yanagi-san! Inui-sempai!" Momo called, running over to the data people's table just as they were standing up. "Will you train with Kaido and me? Kaido wants to see if he can improve the power of his Tornado Snake, and I want to improve my Super Ultra Great Momoshiro Smash!"

_Why don't we start with improving the name_… Renji thought, exchanging a look with Inui.

Inui smiled, pushing up his glasses. "Chances of you asking that-"

"45%."

"-82%"

"…What?"

Renji and Inui looked at each other, bewildered. Their data never differed from the other's so much. Inui flipped through his notebook, making some quick calculations on a piece of paper.

"We were both wrong. It was 61%..." Inui said, frowning.

Renji opened his eyes, surprised. "Our data was wrong…"

"…" Inui pulled out a bottle of something from his bag, a sense of dread running through him. "Drink this, Momoshiro." he ordered.

Momo looked at it suspiciously. By now, he was beginning to regret going to Inui. "…What's in it?"

"…Orange juice."

"What's _really_ in it?"

"Orange juice."

"Then what happened to it?!"

"...Nothing..."

"I can hear the hesitation in your voice, sempai!"

Inui sighed impatiently, waving the bottle at Momo. "Just try it, Momoshiro. I guarantee you won't die."

"What's in it for me?!" Momo yelped, edging away from it. "And I want a guarantee that my tongue won't die too!"

"A buffet voucher at Kawamura's." Inui replied, handing him one from his green notebook. He had been using it as a bookmark. "Taka gave it to me a while back, and it doesn't expire."

Still looking suspicious, Momo grudgingly took a sip of the drink, half expecting his tongue to burst into flames. Surprisingly, it didn't.

"Hm? It's really orange juice!" Momo said cheerfully, relief washing over his face. "Sempai, Kaido's probably waiting, so I'm going. Come to Court 2 when you're ready!"

As Momo walked off, whistling, Inui frowned.

"What's wrong, Professor?" Renji asked.

"….That was my newest Inui Juice recipe." Inui replied, poring over his notes. "The fact that it had no effect means the ingredients didn't set properly. It was a dud. And that _never_ happens…I must figure out what went wrong…"

Renji sighed. "Something's off today. And why are your Juices so necessary?"

~o0o~

_At another side of U-17:_

"Mizuki! Hit a lob!"

"Wah! Chotaro, behind you!"

"Hey! Do you not know how to cooperate, Atobe-kun?!"

'Hmph! Don't talk to Ore-sama that way!"

"Ah…Nothing like a spirited game of tennis." Chotaro said cheerfully, who was rallying with Eiji against Atobe and Mizuki. They had done it once before with table tennis a while ago, but now that the Black Jerseys were back and they were all happy, they were at it again, for old time's sake. Ryoma, Yuuta, Oishi, and Akaya were watching the match, offering bits of (sometimes unwanted) commentary.

"C'mon Mizuki-san!" Yuuta cheered, punching the air. "You've got this! Hit it to their weak spots!"

"Eiji! Apply your training to this!" Oishi said. "Focus!"

"Mada mada dane, Monkey King." Ryoma said, smirking as Atobe glared at him frostily.

"Ooh!" Gakuto yelled, joining the audience from out of nowhere with Jiro and Yuushi. "Tennis match! I'm next!"

"I'm sleepy…" Jiro said, yawning.

"Go take a nap, then, Jiro." Yuushi said, while watching the match with an entertained smile. "I'm going to see the results of this time's match. If I remember correctly, Atobe, Mizuki, Kikumaru and Chotaro once played table tennis against each other. I'm interested in seeing the pairs play once again."

"Huah!" Chotaro yelled, swinging. "I'll return this even if it kills me!"

"Ahn?" Atobe said, hitting it back with a confident smirk. "It won't be that easy, Chotaro."

"They're taking this match too seriously." Gakuto commented, jumping up and down. "Hey! Carrot head!" he yelled to Kikumaru. "Use your acrobatics, idiot!"

"No!" Kikumaru yelped. "I can't use acrobatics nya! And you're the idiot, Carrothead! And the Carrothead! Wait, what? I meant you're both an-"

**"_0-15!"_**

"AH! YOU DISTRACTED ME NYA!" Kikumaru yelled, hopping up and down furiously.

"C'mon, Kikumaru-san, let's do this!" Chotaro said, getting ready to serve with a grim determination. "We must win! I…kyu…nyu…kon!" However, though the serve was fast, it didn't come close to its regular speed.

"IT DIDN'T WORK NYA!"

"Ugh!" Mizuki said, barely getting the ball. Even though the shot's initial effect didn't work, the timing was still good. "So fast! Atobe-kun, use-"

**"_15-15!"_**

"Kuh…" Atobe muttered, shaking his head and stopping for breath. "This isn't as easy as I thought it would be…"

"Oh?" Kikumaru said playfully. "Is Monkey King having difficulties with this game? We're gonna win~!" he chanted cheerfully.

"Hmph." Atobe snorted. "Don't expect your luck to keep going for much longer."

Yuushi sighed. "Say what he wants, Atobe can't use World of Ice. How can he win?"

"Monkey King's timing is also lacking today." Ryoma commented, smirking as Atobe glared at him yet again. He seemed to be hitting a nerve. "Guess it's not his day. But Mizuki-san is quite good."

_But this match isn't following my script! I must have calculated the angles wrong_… Mizuki seethed, hitting a sharp slice. _According to my script, we shouldn't have lost the second point because of Atobe-kun! In fact...Atobe-kun shouldn't be playing this badly at all!"_

"…He'll just have to make do." Gakuto replied, clenching his fists. "Come on, Atobe!"

**_"30-15!"_**

"...Maybe you're jinxing him, Gakuto?" Yuushi asked, earning a glare and slap from Hyotei's redhead.

_Hmph._ Mizuki thought, turning to Atobe. "Atobe, why don't you use your Insight?"

"I was just about to, couldn't you tell?" Atobe huffed. Atobe was obviously in a horrible mood by then, so Mizuki decided to let him be, though try as he might, he couldn't figure out what was annoying Atobe so. The Ice King rarely lost his cool, hence the name.

"...Kikumaru-san, it's only going to get harder from here." Chotaro said, turning serious.

"Don't worry!" Kikumaru said, jumping up and down excitedly. "We've got this!"

"I can see all your weaknesses." Atobe said triumphantly, hitting the ball to Kikumaru's weak side. _Yes!_ he thought, grinning. _I did it!_

"Uwah!" Kikumaru said, barely hitting it. As it was, the ball was lobbed.

"Oh no! Kikumaru-san, Mizuki-san's going to smash it!" Chotaro yelled, gritting his teeth. The audience fell silent in anticipation. "Get ready! Use a special move! Counter it with offence!"

"Take this!" Kikumaru yelled. "POWER HAMMER!"

**"_Game, set and match, Mario and Yoshi pair!"_**

"YEAH! WE WON NYA!" Kikumaru cheered, swinging his Wii remote around until he accidently hit Oishi. "Wah! Gomen, Oishi! But we won~!"

"Hmph." Atobe huffed, looking away. "It was simply a video game. Don't get so excited."

"You were the one who challenged them, Atobe…" Yuushi pointed out. He sweat-dropped as Atobe glared at him darkly. It was about the fourth or fifth time he had done so during the game already.

"Is Mario's special move really called a Power Hammer, Kikumaru-san?" Chotaro asked, after high fiving him.

"Um…probably?"

"What are you doing?" Niou asked, popping his head into the TV lounge along with Yukimura, Sanada and Renji.

"Playing relatable tennis." Jiro answered.

Atobe fumed silently. "Ore-sama has had enough Mario Power tennis to last a lifetime. Ore-sama will go outside now and practice_ real_ tennis."

"It's almost dinner time, buchou!" Jiro piped up, sniffing the air and smelling the mouthwatering scent of multiple culinary delights. U-17 sure knew how to make food smell good. "Go tomorrow!"

"…Jiro, how are you even awake?" Gakuto asked. "You're even on that comfy couch and all."

Jiro blinked as all eyes went to him, shifting around on the plush blue couch he was on. "I…I tried to, but couldn't. I don't know why, but I can't sleep at all today."

"..."

"Is the world ending?"

* * *

At Court 1:

_-BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!_

_-BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!_

_-BAM!_

"…." Tokugawa frowned, having missed a ball yet again. Actually, it was more missing 5 balls than just 1.

"…Yo, Tokugawa…" Tanegashima said, catching the balls with his racket and approaching the net. "Are you ok? Your playing's off. We've only been at it for 10 minutes, and you've been missing every other ball."

"…I'm fine. Thank you for training with me." Tokugawa said stonily. He grabbed his bag from the bench and stormed off without another word.

Tanegashima sighed, shaking his head. He could practically see the storm cloud over Tokugawa's head. "The atmosphere sucks today…" he said, walking down the path and breathing in the cool evening air. He closed his eyes, enjoying the peace and quiet, with the occasional sweet melody from a passing bird. He, for one, was having a good day.

_-PFTRP!_

"Huh?"

-PHHBRT!

"…?"

-HHRBBBBT!

Tanegashima plugged his ears, wincing. "The heck?" That wasn't the beautiful bird song he was listening to. It seemed to be coming from a music room on the first floor of the camp, and Tanegashima slowly made his way towards the door.

-PHTTBR!

-PFFTT!

-FFFFT!

"….Is someone playing an instrument? Or…trying to?" Tanegashima muttered, testing out the door and finding it unlocked. "Hey!" he yelled, walking in. "Whoever you are, you're killing the song! And my ears!" he added. "I'm begging you, please shut up!"

"Ah, Shuu-san, gomen."

Tanegashima stared. "K-KANATA?!"he yelled.

"What's wrong?" Kanata asked innocently, standing up with his saxophone in the middle of the room. An array of sheet music lay perfectly organized on his sheet music stand, and a few music books were propped up on a bed. It had once been a dorm room, but was now used for miscellaneous things.

"…Uh…" Tanegashima still stared. Normally he never got shocked, but long story short, Kanata was U-17's resident musician.

Kanata sighed. "My saxophone playing's been off today...I don't know…maybe it's broken."

Tanegashima shook his head in disbelief. "What's going on? _Everyone's_ having an off day. Tokugawa was playing horribly just before, the chefs keep burning anything and everything, about 200$ of damage has resulted from cups cracking, and I've seen enough broken shoelaces to form a rope long enough to go around the Earth twice! Why is this?"

"…Well…" Kanata said thoughtfully. "Maybe this is tension from the 1st stringers coming."

"…You think?" Shuuji asked thoughtfully. "I guess it'd explain Tokugawa, but what about everyone else? This didn't happen last year. I mean, if anything, shouldn't people be playing _better?_"

Kanata chuckled, putting away his saxophone and clearing his sheet music. "That's because everyone was too busy worrying about the Tokugawa Terror."

"Oh yeah! That was classic!" Tanegashima laughed. "I remember! Tokugawa started challenging everyone until he even knocked down someone from Court 1. At first, no one took him seriously because he was from abroad, but boy, did that change!"

"Some people even stayed holed up in their dorms all day because they didn't want to risk facing him." Kanata added, smiling. "He wasn't friendly, either."

"If it weren't for Byoudouin crushing him, I wonder what would have happened." Tanegashima said. "Would people still have hidden in their dorms like they did?"

"Maybe you or I would have challenged him."

"Hm, probably."

"But don't worry, Shuu-san. It's also probably because of the commotion from the middle schoolers. This has been a very unique year. It'll wear off soon. Let's go for dinner."

"Hope so. Geez, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an explosion or something!"

_-BOOM!_

"…"

"…"

"What was that?"

_At Inui's dorm:_

"I-It's not working! My Inui Juice recipes aren't working! It exploded my blender! How will I make Inui Juices now?!" Inui stammered, looking over a pour of molten who-knows-what dripping off his desk and onto the floor, sizzling. "NOOOO!"

* * *

_The next day:_

Ryoma stood on Court 1, practicing during the first sunlight rays. It was isolated, making it one of the more peaceful courts. He didn't often go to practice this early, but he had felt oddly motivated that day. Or was it motivation? He wasn't sure. He had even gotten up earlier than Kintaro (and that was saying something). He paused mid swing as he noticed the sky was glowing an eerie red. He frowned, remembering an old saying.

_Red skies in morning, sailor's warning._

Owari

**~o0o~**

**Don't have much to say here…But yeah, this was chapter 14, fun to write ^^ Chapter 15's gonna be a pain...that's my preview :p And I know there are a few plot holes with Kabuto's story, but they're there for a reason. I'll cover them next chapter, and if they're still any left, then please tell me :p cuz then that would mean I made a mistake...sigh.**

**Lol, sorry for making Liliadent sound like some battle warrior guy.**

**By the day, please don't kill me. I know sunrises are usually red, so I don't get it . Apparently if a sunrise is red, it foreshadows an approaching storm.**

***Seiza is a method of sitting that kinda hurts and is difficult for young people to do (gotten from chapter 49 of NPOT on mangafox)**

***Sobagara is something used for pillow construction, some thing of buckwheat-I-don't-know. There's Google if you want to know in detail. I only added it because Ryo threw it :p and I wanted it to be somewhat like the manga (though I kinda botched it XP)**

**Thanks for reading! R&R!**

Omake: Relatable Tennis

"Buchou…" Akaya said, picking up a Wii controller and swinging it around like a racket. They had been playing the game for a while after dinner. "Do you think hammers would really be allowed during a match? I mean, isn't it against the rules to have a transforming racket?"

"Hmm…" Yukimura said, sitting down onto a couch. "I think Niou could do it, after some practice. It would be useful, wouldn't it?" he said, smiling. "It would certainly surprise the opponent."

"I think it'd be really cool if we could do stuff like them!" Akaya said excitedly. "Maybe like that really cool fireball move of Bowser's?"

"Doesn't Sanada already have that with his Ka?" Yukimura asked, chuckling.

"Then…" Akaya said, biting his lip. "That Shy Guy's lightning shot! Lightning Spear was it?"

"Sanada's Rai?"

"Waluigi's Whirlwind shot? Whirluigi or something?"

"A similar effect can be created easily. For instance, Ryoma-kun's Cyclone Smash. In fact, I believe Cyclone Smash has more power."

"…Um, how about Diddy-"

"Kaido-kun's Snake."

"Peach's love shot?!" Akaya paused. "Wait, no...It's not a love shot."

"..." Yukimura chuckled. "I believe it's not, but wouldn't it be interesting if it was a shot that made one lovestruck? Now _that _would be scary. Hmm, perhaps my Yips could have that effect some day? What do you think, Akaya?" Yukimura asked, smiling innocently.

Akaya paled. He imagined Sanada playing against Yukimura, and Yukimura using Love Yips. It didn't put a good image into his mind. "Er…Uh…"

"Who said lovestruck? Has the captain of Rikkaidai fallen for someone?" Yukimura and Akaya looked up as Rin, Kite and Tanishi walked in.

"Wah?! Yukimura-buchou isn't in love with anyone!" Akaya said. "At least, I don't think so…" He looked at Yukimura hesitantly, who shook his head in amusement. Akaya sighed in relief. It seemed as if "Love Yips" weren't going in action...yet.

"Ne, Kite-kun…" Yukimura started, a gleam in his blue eyes. "I heard a rumor that your team came to this camp on a pirate raft. Is that true?"

Kite and his team instantly paled.

"What?" Akaya asked, interested. "How could you guys go all that way in a raft?! Cool!"

Kite sighed, looking green. "If only you knew...I've had enough of princess rescues by now."

"Wait, what?"

_Over at another TV lounge:_

**_"Game, set and match, Yoshi!"_**

"GAAH!" Atobe yelled, throwing the Wii remote on the floor. It was obvious he had been the other player. He had been playing Mario Power tennis for the last 3 hours without success.

"How can Ore-sama be so bad at this?! I must practice! Losing to this game to Tezuka 34 times last month was bad enough, but to lose to Chotaro, Kikumaru and a player on the intermediate CPU?! But..." he said, stopping with a sigh. "At least I'm not playing the easiest CPU anymore. This is a vast improvement."

"Atobe?" Gakuto popped his head in. "Ooh! I'm so good at this! But Atobe, why are you only playing against the easiest CPU? What? What do I mean? I know it used to be on intermediate, but Jiro changed it about 3 hours ago, and it's still on easy. See? It says so right there! Hey, you lost? HA!...Uh, A-Atobe?!"

_"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!"_


End file.
